In the 2013–14 season, Ma won the Ciudad de A Coruña World Cup and the Venice Grand Prix. He also earned a silver medal in the Löwe von Bonn World Cup and a bronze medal in the Prince Takamado World Cup. These results pushed him to the first place of the world rankings in May 2014. He was stopped in the quarter-finals at the Asian Championships and came away with no medal. At the World Championships in Kazan he saw off Czech Alexander Choupenitch in the quarter-finals, then had a tight 15–14 win over Russia's Timur Safin. Ma was defeated in the final by another Russian, Aleksey Cheremisinov, and was doomed to a silver medal. In the team event cruised past Egypt, then defeated the top-ranked United States and Italy. They were largely overcome by France in the final and came away with the silver.