China's king of ping-pong suffers shock loss in Wuxi

The South Korean, a 2007 World Junior Champion, gave Ma a fright in their only previous meeting, at the 2011 ITTF World Tour United Arab Emirates Open in Dubai. Ma eventually pulled off a miraculous comeback from 9-6 down in the final game to win 4-3, but the encounter was clearly on both players' minds on Friday.

"The last time I lost and it was frustrating," said Jeong. "Having lost to him last time 4-3, I just went out there to fight."

Ma was philosophical about his loss, claiming a combination of factors had contributed to the result.

"Jeong Sangeun was playing very aggressively and well. On the other hand, I made many errors and that gave him more of a chance," Ma told the ITTF after the match.

The loss against Jeong represents the first major setback for Ma since he began a remarkable run of form in 2015 that saw him complete table tennis' "Full House" by winning all three Grand Slam titles and the ITTF World Tour Grand Finals in just 467 days.

The achievement even won the Liaoning province native sport-wide acclaim, as he was crowned China's Sports Personality of the Year 2016 by the national broadcaster CCTV.

Ma will now need to dust himself down if he is to regain his World Table Tennis Championships title, which he previously won in 2015, in Germany next month.

Marshall expects the world number one to bounce back quickly after Wuxi. "He'll just have to write [the loss] off, and come back even stronger," he said. "I don't think it will affect him in any way whatsoever."

Despite Ma's exit, China still retains strong hopes of winning its eighth consecutive men's singles title at the Asian Championships. Four Chinese players will compete in the round of 16, which starts at 7 pm, including crowd favorite Zhang Jike and up-and-coming star Fan Zhendong.