Kingfisher II team - Senior British League

Maria, Harri, Federico and Takumi represented Kingfisher at the Senior British League (Div 3) at Wolverhampton. The team finished with 3 wins and 1 draw and currently are second and hopeful for promotion.





This is an interesting competition for Maria because she competes against men in the majority of the games. She was the second ranked player which meant she had to compete against the number ones and threes of the other clubs.

On Saturday the 13th of December we faced Elgre Draycott IV and Cliffedale Chandlers and won 6-2 and 7-1 respectively.
Maria's individual results are as follows:
Kate Hughes: w 3-0 (2, 7, 7)
Ben Willson: w 3-1 (-7, 6, 9, 5)
Karl Brown: w 3-0 (5, 4, 7)
Danny Cox: w 3-0 (4, 8, 5)

On the following day we faced Wood Green (won 7-1) and the current leaders Whitworth Academy I (drew 4-4), and Maria's results were:
Jamie Davies: w 3-1 (9, -8, 10, 4)
Jesse Kendrick-Hill: w 3-0 (11, 7, 6)
Samuel Perry: l 2-3(-10, 10, 4, -6, -8)
Edward Lynn: w 3-1 (7, 9, -9, 11)

For full details follow this link

Finlandia Open 2014

Maria's first senior tournament at Finland, 4th to the 7th of December 2014, provided a platform to test her abilities. Maria travelled to Finland with Karina Le Fevre and they were unfortunate to meet at the first round the fifth seeds of the team event from Poland. They lost 3-0 with Maria playing Magdalena Siroska with a World ranking of 211 and managed to get one set (-6 12 -8 -5). Maria is currently ranked 506th at the Seniors with 1297 points.
The following days, for singles, Maria finished 51st overall with 4 wins and 3 losses.

• Rei Yamamoto (Japan): 0-4 (-7, -3, -8, -4)
• Elena Dubkova (Bulgaria, WR163,  1985 points) : 4-0 to Maria (walk over)
• Irina Ermakova (Russia, WR293, 1719 points): 2-4 (-8, 6, 4, -10, -9, -6)
• Anna Ivannikova (Russia, WR468, 1377 points): 4-0 (6, 6, 11, 8)
• Alexandra Falarz (Poland, WR430, 1436 points): 4-3 (-9, 9, 8, -5, 6, -8, 6)
• Rahel Aschwanden (Switzerland, WR247, 1797 points): 0-4 (-5, -9, -8, -6)
• Michaella Karlsson (Sweden, WR428, 1448 points): 4-3 (-9, -9, -11, 3, 5, 6, 9)

Maria's post match interview

“I didn’t think I was on form at all until the final – I thought Tin-Tin was going to wallop me. But for some reason when I get into a final, sub-consciously something changes and I start playing table tennis.

“Whoever gets the best start in sets tends to dominate but the final set is always close.

“We’re really good friends, we’ve played each other for years and we know each other’s games. She doesn’t need to tell me what serve she’s doing, I know by looking at her face, her position, what she’s going to do – but that works in the singles as well!”

Available at the website of TTE

Maria retains her Junior National Titles

Maria on Saturday the 22nd of November retained her Junior National Title by defeating in the final Tin Tin Ho 3-2 overall.
Here is the video of the last set of the game.

This was followed by winning with her partner Tin Tin the girls doubles. A video of the semi-final:

and introducing the competitors.

The victory as reported on the website of tabletennis365, sponsors of Maria; Kingfisher Table Tennis club and the official Table Tennis England website.

Maria's interview before the Nationals

Maria was the winner of the Junior Nationals last year. Few days before this years competition Maria was asked for her thoughts. The article can be found at the Table Tennis England site
Helshan Weerasinghe and Maria Tsaptsinos are relishing the chance to defend their National Junior Singles titles in Preston at the weekend.
Both players enjoyed their maiden triumphs at this level last season, beating Igor Morais and Tin-Tin Ho in their respective finals.
Tsaptsinos had started the event as second seed behind Ho, and the positions will be the same this time around.
The two are the class acts in the field and it would be no surprise if they once more locked horns in the final.
And, despite being the defending champion, Tsaptsinos believes the pressure is no different to last year and accepts that Ho is still the one to beat.
“I don’t think the pressure is any different,” said the Reading player. I don’t go out thinking ‘I must win’, I just go and do my best.
“At the moment, Tin-Tin is playing well and she’s beaten me the last couple of times we’ve played. But on the day, you never really know – it’s how you play and how you are mentally and physically.
“We train together and I don’t think there’s much difference in our games.”
The pair are now together on the England scene and both recently featured at the Hungarian Youth Open.
Tsaptsinos said international events were now forming a greater focus for the pair – although the Nationals are still high up in the order of priorities.
“Making your mark in England is one thing, and you always like to win those big competitions, there’s no doubt about it,” she said.
“When we were younger, it was the be-all and end-all, but now we’re getting all these chances to go abroad as well.
“Tin-Tin’s getting those international results right now, but I didn’t play at the top of my game in Hungary – maybe it was the pressure and nerves of my first big tournament since the big improvements in my game. But those results will come in time.
“I feel my game has improved tremendously over the last 18 months and people are starting to notice that.”

Hungarian Open: Tin-Tin and Maria make strides — Table Tennis England

The ETTA report
Hungarian Open: Tin-Tin and Maria make strides — Table Tennis England

Maria started badly losing on the fifth to a Hungarian girl but then she followed it with two wins to top Group 7. She lost to another Hungarian girl at the next round.

For the doubles Maria and Tin Tin have reached the last 16 after winning firstly against the Korean girls and then the Slovakian girls.

Group 7                             Details of group 7
		1				MARCHETTI Nathalie  BEL		1-3	3-0	3-0								2	1	5
		2				TSAPTSINOS Maria  ENG	3-1		3-0	2-3								2	1	5
		3				PAVLOVIC Andrea  CRO	0-3	0-3		3-0								1	2	4
		4				ZS.-SZABO Kira  HUN	0-3	3-2	0-3									1	2	4

	TSAPTSINOS Maria  ENG /	vs		ZS.-SZABO Kira  HUN /		11-5, 8-11, 9-11, 11-2,9-11,-, -	2-3	ZS.-SZABO Kira/

MARCHETTI Nathalie  BEL /

vs

TSAPTSINOS Maria  ENG /

5-11, 12-10, 7-11, 9-11,-,-, -

1-3

TSAPTSINOS Maria/

TSAPTSINOS Maria  ENG /

vs

PAVLOVIC Andrea  CRO /

11-8, 11-7, 11-5, -,-,-, -

3-0

TSAPTSINOS Maria/

Tsaptsinos Maria vs Hartbrich Leonie (Hun) : 1-4 (11-7,7-11,10-12,9-11,5-11)

HO Tin-Tin and TSAPTSINOS Maria vs JUNG Dana and SHIN Yubin KOR : 3-1 (8-11,11-8,11-6,11-3)

HO Tin-Tin and TSAPTSINOS Maria vs GRIGELOVA Natalia and KUKULKOVA Tatiana SVK: 3-0 (11-8, 11-8, 11-3)

England youngsters are ‘Hungary for success’ — Table Tennis England

England youngsters are ‘Hungary for success’ — Table Tennis England

WBL Gallery

Womens British League The 1st Weekend

The Women's British League first weekend took place at Tipton and Maria for the third year running was a member of the Ormesby team. Maria with Karina LeFevre, Sarah Berge and Chloe Whyte managed to win all their games with Maria ending the weekend with a 100% record (10 out of 10) and twp Player of the Match awards.

An impressive statistic is that in 38 games for WBL Maria has won 35 games, an impressive 92%.

You may listen to Maria talking at the end of the second day to Matt Shaw and/or watch the last point against Isobel Ashly with a pretty good backhand.

Team Results
vs Knighton Park: 6-0
vs Burton Uxbridge: 6-0
vs YHL: 6-0
vs Halton TTC 1: 6-0
vs Draycott East Midlands 1: 5-1

Individual Results
Lesley Keast Knighton Park 11-4 11-4 11-3
Alkisti Olympiou Knighton Park 11-8 11-3 11-4
Kate Hughes Burton Uxbridge TTC 11-6 12-10 11-4
Isobel Ashley Burton Uxbridge TTC 11-8 11-8 11-3
Rachel Trevorrow YHL 11-6 12-10 11-7
Victoria Smith YHL 10-12 11-7 11-7 11-2
Sarah Perks Halton TTC 1 11-6 11-4 11-3
Jasmin Ould Halton TTC 1 11-6 11-6 11-7
Natalie Slater Draycott East Midlands 1 12-10 11-7 11-6
Abbie Milwain Draycott East Midlands 1 6-11 11-8 11-7 11-7

The official report is in the following link

One Month in Shanghai summarised into a Page!

This summer I spent, what felt like an eternity, hitting a small white plastic ball back and forth in front of some unimpressed Chinese table tennis players. Four England Junior players journeyed to the east side of China, Shanghai, for a series of Chinese lessons, calligraphy, paper cutting and of course the main reason, table tennis practice.

The practice included sessions running from 8.30-11.30 with a short 15 minute break halfway through and the afternoon sessions ran from 2.30 to 5.30. The exercises set by the head coach out in Shanghai University of sport were originally challenging and pushed us to our limits but throughout the time there we grew stronger and they didn’t seem so tough at the end. Many exercises such as free play to backhand block, serve then free and relooping exercises were frequently set and with each exercise battling on for 10-15 minutes, you can imagine the amount of sweat dripping off each England player. Five to six litres of water were being drunk by us every day due to the intense training and heat. The humidity out in China exceeded our expectations for the 3 of us who had never been before; we often craved to be inside where the air conditioning could reach us.

Compulsory physical exercise was set by the England Coach, Matt Stanforth, every morning which consisted of 2km runs and core circuits, on occasions we were joined by some of the other European players who were also at the training camp in Shanghai.

As well as the training we managed to venture out into central Shanghai: on one day we went up the third tallest tower in the world and overlooked the whole of Shanghai. On another day we went to the ancient town of Shanghai followed by a trip to a traditional acrobatics show. The scariest day for many of us was the adventure to the underground markets, where the shop assistants would grab us and follow us around the market bargaining for the best price of the ‘real’ electronic items.

Lessons in Chinese (mandarin), calligraphy and paper cutting also broadened our knowledge of Chinese culture. Overall my time in Shanghai was worthwhile as I think my fitness, table tennis performance and ability has increased which was the primary purpose of going out there. I think another trip to China is on the cards.

Sainsburys UK School Games - 2014

The Games are a multi-sport event for the UK's most talented young athletes of school age and is delivered by Youth Sport Trust. They provide competition conditions akin to a major International Games for the 1,600 potential future sports stars across 12 sports. In addition to the competition element, there are opening and closing ceremonies, an athletes village and an athlete education programme.

In the Table Tennis discipline, eight regional teams compete in the Girls and Boys Team Championships with each team consisting of four boys and four girls plus two coaches. The player selection for each team is mainly based on Junior National Rankings. A Girls and Boys Individual Championship follows the team events and features all 64 players who are placed in groups of four, with the 32 qualifiers proceeding to straight knock-out rounds.

Maria played for England South West and had a terrific tournament, culminating in the runners-up positions in both the Girls Team Championship and the Girls Individual Championships - she is proudly sporting her two silver medals in the picture. Maria was beaten in the final of the latter event 3-1 by Tin Tin Ho.

In the Team event South West were beaten 4-2.

Maria  gave South West a winning start with a four-set win over Peake, but Ho levelled by beating Jazmin Johns in three.

Letitia McMullen put South West back in front with a four-end victory over Patel, but again their opponents responded as Ho and Peake won the doubles in three straight.

The clash between Ho and Tsaptsinos was always likely to be a key determining factor in the destination of the gold medals and it proved to be a high-quality match as expected.

Ho opened a 2-0 lead before Tsaptsinos took the third 11-6. The fourth was nip and tuck as the South West girl fought hard to level, but Ho just had the edge to take it 12-10.

With South East in front for the first time, Peake was not about to let the advantage slip and she saw off McMullen in three straight to complete the victory.

Both teams had cantered through their last-four clashes 4-0, South West without dropping an end against Northern Ireland, and South East against Wales – though Beth Roberts took Feredj to five.

Maria's scores for the individual event:
Maria Tsaptsinos v Kate Roberts 11-5,11-6,11-4
 Maria Tsaptsinos v Ella Patel 11-7,11-6,11-4
Maria Tsaptsinos v Hannah Clark 11-3,11-5,11-4
Maria Tsaptsinos v Olivia Churchill 11-5 11-3 11-9
Maria Tsaptsinos v Hannah Lynch-Dawson 11-4 11-7 11-8
Maria Tsaptsinos v
Lois Peake 14-12 11-6 11-8
Maria Tsaptsinos v Tin Tin Ho 13-11 9-11 3-11 5-11

Maria's cores for the team event:
Maria Tsaptsinos v S Jenkins 11-3 11-3 11-3
Maria Tsaptsinos v K Roberts 11-1 11-3 11-5
Maria Tsaptsinos v E Bolton 11-7 11-9 7-11 12-10
Maria Tsaptsinos v M Dillon 11-5 11-5 11-3
Maria Tsaptsinos v L Elliott 11-4 11-5 11-3
Maria Tsaptsinos v R Crawford 11-4 11-5 11-5
Maria Tsaptsinos v R Finn 11-7 11-5 11-8
Maria Tsaptsinos v L Peake 11-7 9-11 11-6 11-5
Maria Tsaptsinos v Tin Tin Ho 9-11 9-11 11-6 10-12

More detailed results can be found here

Training in China

For almost a month Maria will be training in China, at Shanghai in particular. She is joined with Lois Peake and Alex Ramsden as well as with players from other countries.

Table Tennis 365

Maria is proud to announce that she has joined Table Tennis 365 as the latest sponsored player.

Best Performance of the Year award

Sandra Deaton presented Maria with the John Leece MBE award during the Table Tennis England Annual General Meeting on the 19th of July 2014. The award recognised Maria's fantastic season and more impressive since it includes cadet, junior and senior levels.

A National Table Tennis Day - Parliament

Maria was part of the first national table tennis day that took place in Parliament at the banks of the river Thames on the 17th of July 2014. She had the chance to rub shoulders with MPs, Lords and Dames and to play against some of them.They included the chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, Keith Vaz, and Mark Lancaster, the Milton Keynes MP, who helped to arrange the event on Speaker’s Green in the shadow of Big Ben.