Ho claims European doubles gold medal

Paddington athlete teamed up with Karoline Mischek to triumph in Portugal

Paddington’s Tin-Tin Ho hailed one of her biggest achievements as she became European Under-21 women’s doubles champion.

Alongside Karoline Mischek of Austria, the 20-year-old was seeded seventh for the event in Portugal.

The duo swept aside all competition, including beating second seeds Adina Diaconu & Andreea Dragoman of Romania in the quarter-finals.

They then took out fifth seeds Xuan Zhang of Spain and Audrey Zarif of France 3-2 in a tight semi-final, before sealing the gold with a 3-0 victory over Polish sisters Anna & Katarzyna Wegrzyn.

Ho & Mischek stormed to the finish line, overturning a 6-1 deficit in the final set as they went on a run of 10 points out of 12 to ensure a place on the top step of the podium.

“I’m really happy to get the gold,” said Ho. “We played together at the Portugal Open recently and we lost our first match, so we didn’t know what to expect.

“We know each other’s games really well because we practice together at our club in Linz and we complement each other.

“I don’t think we thought about winning and losing at any point, we just wanted to keep working away, even when we were down in games, and we were really calm.

“It’s definitely up there with my other achievements — to be the Under-21 European champion is a great feeling.”