British Universities Champion

This weekend the BUCS ( British Universities and Colleges Sport) individual championships took place hosted by Nottingham University. On home soil Maria won the singles versus Beth Roberts and the mixed doubles, partnered with Daniel Reed. She also won silver for the womens doubles with her partner Yolanda King, losing 2-3, 9-11 on the fifth. The University Tble Tennis club had a successful entry since they won 9 medals in total (4 golds, 3 silvers and 2 bronze).
Full results can be found here

Statistics

Type	Played	Matches						Games				Points				Walkovers
Single	8	8	-			0	100.0%	24	-	3	88.9%	285	-	155	64.8%	0
Double	11	10	-			1	90.9%	32	-	4	88.9%	385	-	228	62.8%	0
Total	19	18	-			1	94.7%	56	-	7	88.9%	670	-	383	63.6%	0

Spanish Open: First Day

Maria's task at the first day of the Spanish Open it was always going to be difficult since she was facing opponents higher ranked than her. The first game was versus Selena Selvakumar of India (ranked 310) for the Under21s with Maria winning. The full video is available at the ITTF web pages. Unfortunately despite a good start against Xuan Zhang of Spain (ranked 223) again for the Womens Under 21 with a 11-6 first set she lost 3-1 (11-6 6-11 9-11 2-11). The third set was the deciding one with Maria 9-7 up and serving unfortunately the serves did not serve their purpose. This game is also available at ittf.com.

For the Womens Singles Maria lost both games to Yousra Helmy of Egypt (r 317) with a 2-4 score and Stephanie Loeuillette of France (r 132) with a 0-4 score.

Next day to come is Womens Doubles with Lois Peake being her partner.

British League: The Second Weekend

Maria, recently arriving back from Poland, joined the Kingfisher team for the second weekend of the British League (7-8 October). This took place at Nottingham and Maria won 5 out of 8 matches helping the team to be currently joint second. The team consistent of Marcus Giles, Dan Basterfield, Jamie Liu and
Reece Chamdal.

Maria's results were:

Opponent		Team	Date	Score	Result
Patricia Ianau		London Academy I	07/10/2017	11-9 11-7 11-9	Win
Gabriel Achampong		London Academy I	07/10/2017	10-12 9-11 11-9 11-6 9-11	Loss
Israel Awolaja		Wymondham	07/10/2017	11-6 8-11 11-8 3-11 8-11	Loss
Omar Khassal		Wymondham	07/10/2017	11-8 11-5 8-11 7-11 11-3	Win
Joe Killoran		Halton I	08/10/2017	11-5 11-4 11-5	Win
Amirul Hussain		Halton I	08/10/2017	11-7 8-11 11-13 11-5 11-7	Win
Keir Morton		Drumchapel Glasgow II	08/10/2017	11-6 8-11 11-7 9-11 10-12	Loss
Sepehr Bidari		Drumchapel Glasgow II	08/10/2017	10-12 8-11 11-7 11-9 11-6	Win

Source: British League

Polish Open

Between the 4th of October and the 8th of October Maria participated at the Polish Open taking place at Czestochowa.

For the Under 21s Maria (423 ranked)  had to face Filippa Bergand (Sweden, 381 ranked) and Angelika Janik (Poland, 801 ranked) for the group stage. Maria had a 3-1 win over Angelika (7 -9 6 4) and 3-2 win over Filippa (7 -8 9 -5 9). At the round of 64 though she lost to Yuan Wan (Germany, 185 ranked) 3-0 (-8 -5 -8).

Maria was eliminated at the group stage after a win versus Natalia Grigelova (Slovakia, 524 raked) with a 4-1 score (5, 6, 7, -9, 5) and a loss to Pauline Chasselin (France, 189 ranked) with a 4-1 score (-8 -8 -7 7 -6).

As for doubles the usually successful team of Maria and Tin Tin failed at the first hurdle to the Czech duo of STRBIKOVA Renata and TOMANOVSKA Katerina (-6 -9 -5)

Croatia camp

Training hard at Croatia twelve days before the world university games in Taiwan

A small video of the training

British League - Final Weekend

The Kingfisher team of Dave Barr, Marcus Giles, Daniel Basterfield, Hari Gehlot and Maria participated at BATTS for the final weekend of the Championship Division of the British League.
The team played three games:

• vs Cippenham. Won 7-1 with Maria having two wins against Robert Hansell (11-7 11-6 11-7)and Martin Gray (11-8 11-7 11-5) 
• vs Wymondham. Won 6-2 with Maria having two wins against Ian Mclean (12-10 8-11 11-4 12-10) and Ryan Collins (11-6 11-5 9-11 11-6)
• vs Nottingham Sycamore 1. Lost 5-2 with Maria winning against Shaquille Webb-Dixon (11-6 11-9 11-8) and losing to Ismaila Akindiya (6-11 7-11 11-6 2-11)

 Overall Maria played 20 games with a winning rate of 55%. Full Maria's results can be seen here and the team finished 5th overall.

This girl can campaign

Maria was invited to showcase table tennis along with Kelly Sibley during a girls-only event at Birmingham. A detailed report appears at the following link Girls get the Premier League experience

Maria More Success At The Nationals: YouTube links

Womens Doubles Winners

 The Table Tennis National Championships took place at Nottingham University between the 3rd and the 5th of March with a number of games being streamed live and the final stages shown at SportsBible.

Maria's Under 21s journey started on the Saturday facing at the Quarter Finals Kate Cheer who qualified through the group stage the previous day and Maria comfortably came through 4-0 ( 1 4 5 8). Then later on Emily Bolton was the semi finalist opponent with Maria winning 4-2. After a 2-0 lead for Maria (4 9) Emily came back stronger to equalise at 2 all (-9 -10) but Maria bounced back with 11-7 and 11-8 to face, who else, Tin Tin Ho at the final.
Maria's game with Emily can be seen at the following link (Time:5:02:33)
Maria vs Emily YouTube Link 

Tin Tin disposed Lois Peake 4-0 and the same final of the past few years was set up once again. Statistically, it was Tin Tin's turn since the past 4 years both girls won it in alternative years and that was true with Tin Tin winning 4-1 (-10 9 -9 -9 -8). The final was closely competed but it lacked the passion of previous years.

For the Mixed Doubles Maria partnered once more Tom Jarvis and they went through the first round versus Alim Hirji and Denise Payet with a 3-1 scoreline (-10 8 6 8). Next round they faced Commonwealth duo Daniel Reed and Kelly Sibley and they were unlucky to lose on the fifth set (9 -8 4 -6 -12) but showed a much improved picture as a doubles partnership than previously.




On a busy Saturday Maria's first opponent for the Womens Singles was Lettitia McMullan who again came through the Friday groups. Maria progressed with a 4-0 win (8 4 3 8) to face once again Emily Bolton for the second time on the day. This time Maria had a very good game concentrating hard and attacking at all times to win 4-0 (7 6 6 6) with the game available at this Maria versus Emily Womens Singles YouTube Link
Her next opponent was the number one seed Kelly Sibley that Maria has only faced once beforehand - again at the Nationals. In a very closed encountered Maria lost 4-1 (-9 -12 -7 13 -3) but she deserved more than one set with all the ffort and good play. The game is also available at time 2:01:53 Maria versus Kelly Womens Singles YouTube link

For the doubles Maria and Tin Tin won once again the title for the third time running versus Kelly Sibley and Joe Drinkhall with a 3-0 scoreline (6 9 8). Please watch at 4:25:25 Womens Doubles Final
In previous rounds Maria and Tin Tin beat Kate Highes/Naomi Jackson 3-0 (7 2 7) and Karina Le Fevre/Emma Vickers 3-0 (7 7 8).

Nottingham University Table Tennis Club Honours

The University of Nottingham Table Tennis Club won the Nottinghamshire Team of the Year Award on Tuesday the 31st of January 2017. The team includes two Kingfisher players, Maria and Liam McTiernan as well as Tressa Armitage, Adam Harrison, Emma Ludlow, Yolanda King.

Spire Dunedin Hospital: New Sponsors

We are glad to announce that Spire Dunedin Hospital  part of the Spire Healthcare group in keeping with their commitment to help talented local youngsters fulfil their sporting potential, have announced the sponsoring of Maria.

 Located in central Reading, Spire Dunedin Hospital has earned a long-standing reputation for providing first class private medical care to patients in Berkshire and the Thames Valley and Maria is very happy to be associated with the hospital and grateful for the sponsorship which will allow her to attend table tennis camps abroad during the summer in her drive to give herself the best chances to be selected for the Commonwealth Games next year.