Table tennis star Tin-Tin Ho wins hat-trick of medals at senior national championships
Tin-Tin Ho (right) celebrates with Maria Tsaptsinos, with the pair winning the women's doubles title at the Senior National Championships. Pic: Alan Man - Credit: Archant
Paddington table tennis star Tin-Tin Ho took three titles at the senior national championships and narrowly missed out on a fourth.
The 16-year-old, who lives in Upbrook Mews and attended St Joseph’s Catholic School in Maida Vale, won the mixed doubles, women’s doubles and Under-21 women’s singles titles but lost in the final of the senior women’s singles.
That defeat was a narrow one as Ho came back from 2-0 down to level against the top seed Kelly Sibley but she ultimately went down 4-2 (14-12, 11-4, 9-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9) as Sibley took her fifth title.
Ho also battled back twice in the mixed doubles final alongside her partner Sam Walker – and this time there was a happy ending.
The pair were 1-0 and then 5-1 down in one of the early sets against Danny Reed and Sibley but took a useful timeout with coach Howard Knott and came back to win 11-8.
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The third set was an even fight but the champions kept their noses in front to take it 11-9 – and although Reed and Sibley motored into an 8-1 and then 10-2 lead in the fourth, Walker and Ho reeled off 10 points to take it 12-10.
Ho said: “Howard just said we had to do something different and find a way to get back into it – just try anything we hadn’t tried. We both just relaxed and played and started to dominate more.”
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In the women’s doubles final, Ho and Maria Tsaptsinos beat Karina Le Fevre and Emma Vickers 3-1 (11-5, 11-9, 4-11, 11-8).
The victors then went head to head in the Under-21 final, and Ho won 3-0 (11-6, 11-5, 11-9) against Tsaptsinos, gaining revenge for her defeat in last year’s final and in November’s junior nationals.
Ho added: “I was extra motivated after losing to Maria last year and at the juniors. I think this time I relaxed a bit and tried to play my game and not worry about anything else. I felt quite stable, I didn’t miss much and had more control.
“Overall, I’m quite happy. It would have been nice to win the women’s singles but Kelly is really strong. I feel I have a few things to work on and I need to be more clever in the way I play.”
