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)