Living in Tintin’s shadow: Dad’s obsession with TT shapes Ho’s world

Living in Tintin’s shadow: Dad’s obsession with TT 

shapes Ho’s world

                               

That Tin-Tin Ho was destined to play table tennis is a mighty understatement. Despite her name often bringing about misconceptions about it being inspired by the namesake cartoon character, it actually originated from her father’s love for the sport. The abbreviation of table tennis, TT, was made to serve as the initials for the 17-year-old.

A part of the English contingent competing at the 20th Commonwealth Table Tennis Championship in Surat, England’s second-best woman player explains the reactions she gets when she introduces herself at home.

“Tin-Tin in itself is quite a strange name. People keep asking, ‘like, the cartoon?’ Then they think it’s a boy’s name because of the cartoon,” she says, giggling. “And when I explain what the name is for, they just go, ‘What?’ I just laugh along with it,” she adds.

When she is eventually given the chance to present the accurate explanation, Ho often leaves the inquirer stunned. “People get quite surprised when I explain my name. For them, table tennis is just a hobby or a holiday game. It’s not something taken too seriously,” she mentions.

In the Ho household nonetheless, the sport reigns supreme. In fact, Ho’s elder brother was named ‘Ping,’ from Ping-Pong. “There was a chance I was going to be named ‘Pong.’ I’d have tried to change it if that was the case. So I guess Tin-Tin is better than Pong,” she laughs.

Her play, however, goes well beyond just the name and the amusement that comes with its origin. As a 14-year-old, she first won recognition when she claimed the U-21 women’s singles national title, a feat she repeated again two years later. But the initial achievement was what made way for greater success — a silver in the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

At just 15, she was paired up with the number one men’s player in the country Liam Pitchford for the mixed doubles event of the quadrennial event. “My first thoughts were, ‘What?’” she recalls. “I thought he’d be partnering top women’s player Kelly Sibley, but the coaches said that we would do good partnering together,” she explains.

A silver medal though had its own negative connotation for the teenager. “I was still crying when we were called to get the medal. I wasn’t really happy because we could have won the gold. But it was still a good feeling,” she says.

That was a year after she won her first medal, another silver, in one of her first international sojourns, at the 2013 Commonwealth TT Championships in New Delhi. Incidentally, before the call up to that squad, she had contemplated leaving the sport altogether. “All my friends used to go out and enjoy while I was busy practising. So I did have a few thoughts about leaving. But that was before all the excitement of foreign tournaments and medals came up,” she states.

The next big thing

Presently though, she has established a strong reputation for herself in Europe as one of the next big thing. Behind the constantly chattering and smiling demeanour, her senior in the English team, Karina Le Fevre asserts she is a grounded and mature player. “She’s very serious about the game. She has a versatile style and always gives her best in a match. I feel very confident when she’s going in for a match for the team, so it’s really good to have her here,” says the 22-year-old, who is among the eldest players in an otherwise young squad representing England in Surat.

Concurrently, Ho does assert that she wishes to pursue the sport as a profession. She’s in the process of taking up advanced academic courses nonetheless, but will dedicate a gap year from her education to excel in the game. “Since the game isn’t really big in England, it’s always a good thing to have something to do when you finally retire,” claims Le Fevre, who is currently studying law.

Meanwhile the teenager, who had a part of the crowd cheering her name at the Pandit Dindayal Upadhyay Stadium, has found a balance between the laughs and the hard hours needed at the table. With her parents originally from Hong Kong, the London-born teen often embarks on training sessions in China.

Despite her father’s obsession with the sport, it is ironically her mother, who didn’t know much of the sport and was against her being named ‘Tin-Tin,’ who travels with her to the far East to serve as translator. “She didn’t really like the name. But since the Mandarin meaning is ‘sky,’ I guess she let Dad give me the name,” Ho says, smiling.

Ranked 240th in the world, she’s happy with the progress she’s made in her career so far, standing second only behind Sibley in England’s rankings. And she’s also made peace with her own name, despite the few embarrassing occasions. But she does feel a degree of sympathy for her brother, a budding lawyer. “He’s planning to change his name to Peter because it sounds a little more professional than ‘Ping Ho.’ Compared to him I’m alright,” she chuckles.