Paddington’s teenage table tennis star Tin-Tin Ho made the most of her late call-up to the Europe Youth Top 10 event as she won five matches out of nine to finish fifth in the junior girls’ event.

The 16-year-old, who lives in Upbrook Mews and used to attend St Joseph’s Catholic School in Maida Vale, had only received a call-up from first reserve on the eve of the tournament and was seeded 10th.

She lost her opening match 4-1 to Poland’s Natalia Bajor but bounced back to win her next three, which put her in the upper reaches of the standings.

Defeats to France’s Pauline Chasselin and Germany’s Wan Yuan ruled out the possibility of overall victory, but wins over France’s Laura Pfefer in round seven and Bernadett Balint of Romania in an epic ninth and final match which went the distance meant she was in contention for a podium place, having scored 14 points.

However, on countback, she finished behind Bajor, who took third, and Yuan in fourth.

Chasselin was the silver medalist, while gold went to Croatia’s Lea Rakovac, who won all nine matches to finish with 18 points.

England performance coach Alan Cooke said: “She [Ho] was a really late replacement. We knew she was first reserve, but they only let us know early that morning – we were on the road and had to wait for her.

“In some ways, maybe that helped her in terms of not worrying too much about it. She looked and played great throughout the tournament. She was positive from the word go and put in some really good performances – some of the best table tennis I have seen her play for a long time.”