Tara Murray
Tina Ma has spent much of the last few weeks on the squash court with plenty to show for it.
The Melton rising star competed in three major tournaments in the short time, coming away with two major titles and having another opportunity to represent her country
She said while there was plenty of action on court, it actually felt like a breeze for her.
“Two weeks before the competitions started I was still extremely focused with training, and working hard to get results I hoped for,” she said.
“Over the last week was when the competitions were held and thankfully all my training paid off as I won the under-15’s Australian Junior Open title and the under-15’s Oceania Junior Championships title for the third consecutive year in a row.
“I also got selected to play for Australia in the Trans Tasman Test Series against New Zealand, and my matches also ran very smoothly across those two days.”
Ma said while she was wanting to go in and have some good competitions, she had exceeded her own expectations.
“I played way better than I thought I would’ve,” she said.
“I was definitely nervous at the beginning with all the tournaments, luckily I managed to overcome that and managed to play at my best and gain a lot of experience from it too.”
Ma said she loved the opportunity to represent Australia again, saying it was a real honour.
She said it’s her aim every year to make the national team.
“We all played incredibly well, and managed to beat New Zealand 20-11,” she said.
“Apart from squash though, I also had lots of fun connecting with other players in the team and we had a really great time on court cheering each other on, and off court making memories that I’ll never forget.”
Ma said she couldn’t have done what she has the last three weeks without the support of her coaches, Richard Cagliarini and Anthony Hill, training partners at Squash Logic Melton, parents, friends and her sponsor Technifibre.
With no major tournaments the next few months, Ma said she will play a few more senior tournaments to gain more experience for the Australian Junior Championships in September and October this year.
Her main aim of making the 2032 Olympics remains the big goal.
“That’s always been a dream of mine that I’ll keep on pushing hard to achieve, and maybe one day I’ll make it.”
