CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Fifteen-year-old Tashiya Piyadasa (SPINDEX: 2407) spent her Saturday night inside the dining area of the Elements Charlotte Uptown hotel. She sat at one of its tables with a hamburger in her hand and a distraught look on her face. Across from her sat Florida Crocs teammate Marc Duran (2732), who tried his best to lift her spirits. “It’s good that you’re sad,” he told her. “That means you care, and that you’re a winner.” In his eyes, she was. He just needed to convince his friend. So he bought her dinner, listened to the thoughts that were still too difficult for her to speak, and stayed with her, alone at that table, until she felt better about what happened that night.

‍

The painful yelling and cheering of the raucous Charlotte Convention Center crowd still rang throughout her mind. It was only a few short hours ago when Piyadasa walked toward the table, ready to face Carolina’s Chen Sun. The scoreboard to Piyadasa’s left read “20-20.” Carolina had momentum. Florida’s Daniel Gorak (2696) couldn’t seal the Golden Game when the score was 20-19 in the Crocs’ favor, much to Piyadasa’s dismay. That was the final point before the teams rotated players. Now, it was her responsibility to play the rally that would either win or lose the match for her team.

‍

Sun served the ball. Piyadasa barely hit it back over the net. Panic started to set in. Piyadasa's nerves took over her brain when Sun tapped the ball back over to her. She hit the net, and the ball bounced on her side. Sun smiled and lifted her arms in the air before walking away from the table. Piyadasa stood still for a moment while the home crowd roared.

‍

Duran was the first player to give Piyadasa a high five. She hesitated for a moment before returning the gesture, walking over to the Crocs’ bench, and sitting on the floor without saying a word for several minutes.

‍

“It’s hard,” Piyadasa told Table Tennis TV. “There’s nothing you can really say about that.”

‍

Piyadasa knows the feeling of pressure far too well. The Crocs picked her up as a free agent right before Week 2 began. Not only would she have to replicate the production of Peiyu Zhu (2597), who won Female Player of the Week for her Week 1 performance in Pleasanton, Calif., she would have to do so against players several years her senior. When Piyadasa approached the table last Friday, the 15-year-old officially became the youngest woman to ever play Major League Table Tennis.

‍

To those who’ve watched her play, she’s at a level far beyond her years. Duran couldn’t help but be impressed when he first watched her play at Orange County Table Tennis Academy two summers ago. She had such a strong command of the ball even back then, and she worked very hard to get there. Not many teenagers can say that.

‍

“I think what impressed me more was how concentrated and hard she was working in practice,” Duran said. “That is a very important quality to [have before you] arrive at a high level.”

‍

That comes from her father. Thilina Piyadasa was an eight-time Sri Lankan national champion in men’s singles, the torchbearer for his country at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, and the first Sri Lankan to ever win a gold medal at the international level. He passed that passion for table tennis onto his daughter, who idolized her father and wanted to pick up the sport because of him.

‍

“I was always watching him when I was a little kid,” Piyadasa said. “I’d go to the club, I’d bring my iPad … I’d go watch my dad play, and I got really inspired by the sport.”

‍

‍

She dedicated herself to table tennis by the time she turned seven years old, training and practicing under her father’s coaching with the hope of following in his massive footsteps. He taught her not just how to play like a professional, but how to think like a professional. No one will win every game they play, and he wanted her to be aware of that. And with that in mind, he taught her to get back up, to keep practicing and to always put forth her best effort regardless of the prior result. A loss is a loss. But with the right mindset, the next several games don’t have to be.

‍

That didn’t make this particular loss hurt any less. She had a chance to win the match for the team that took a chance on her, and she didn’t. Many people would feel like a failure in the hours following such a moment. That’s why Duran spent his Saturday night across from Piyadasa, making sure those feelings didn’t stick with her before the Crocs’ next match that following morning. No matter how long that would take.

‍

Duran is many things for Piyadasa. He’s a fellow member of Piyadasa’s club in California. He coaches her and offers guidance whenever they’re at their club together. But most importantly, Duran is a really good friend, someone who lifts her up at her best and at her worst. As are their teammates on the Crocs. From the moment Piyadasa lost her final golden point that night, everyone wearing a Crocs uniform came to cheer her up. It didn’t matter whether she won or lost that match. She was still a valuable member of their team.

‍

“I knew that if I did something wrong, my team is strong enough and supportive and they’ll come [and] back me up,” Piyadasa said. “The team really supported me.”

‍

Piyadasa regained a bit of her self-confidence by the end of the night. And for that next match, she would need it. Her opponent would be Minhyung Jee (2491) of the Atlanta Blazers, the No. 42 women’s singles player in the world at the time, per ITTF’s rankings. Jee participated in multiple Grand Smash events, WTT Champions events and several other international tournaments. She started playing table tennis before Piyadasa was even born. And the day before, Jee hadn’t dropped any of her singles games to New York’s Tiffany Ke (2408). Piyadasa was still on the heels of her devastating Golden Game loss.

‍

But one loss doesn’t define a player. Piyadasa knows that. Her father told her that. Duran told her that. The rest of her team told her that. She still had three more games to win before the weekend ended. So Piyadasa walked to the table to face Jee, with her paddle in her hand and a desire to win this game for the Crocs.

‍

The first game: 11-5. Piyadasa won.

‍

The second game: 11-6. Piyadasa won.

‍

The third game: 11-7. Piyadasa won.

‍

‍

The crowd cheered for her. Her teammates cheered for her. The look on her face was much more animated than the night before. The 15-year-old Piyadasa had just taken down the No. 42 woman in the world in a three-game sweep. That stellar performance lifted the Crocs’ lead from 2-1 to 5-1, making it an uphill battle for the Blazers to come back. They never did. The Crocs built on that lead and went up 10-5 before the Golden Game. And in that Golden Game, Piyadasa contributed four points against Jee, which helped the Crocs win their first match of the week.

‍

With a little help from her friends, her teammates, and her father’s guidance from afar, Piyadasa turned an emotional night into a weekend she said she’ll cherish as long as she plays table tennis.

‍

“From here on out, I’ve gained more confidence in myself, and now I know I can do things,” Piyadasa said. “After beating [Jee], I felt like anything is possible. [You] can do anything as long as you’re working hard, you’re persevering and your supporters are there beside you.”

‍

When that match ended, Piyadasa received a swarm of positive attention. Players, coaches and fans kept telling her and others what a great job she did. Children came up to her and asked her to sign the back of their shirts. As Duran put it, “You’re famous now!” She was. The youngest female player in MLTT history had risen above her competition and helped lead her team to a win.

‍

And the match she played before that one? The one that made her spend her Saturday night alone with Duran inside the dining area at Element Charlotte Uptown hotel?

‍

“I’ve learned from it, and then I realized that there’s no point being scared,” Piyadasa said. “If your legs are shaking, your hands are shaking, it’s better just to go out there and just do it. Don’t overthink. Go and do it.”

‍