Tabe Tennis: 14-year-old Diaz carries on family tradition

Bladimir and Marangely Diaz were too old to travel to international competitions by the time they joined Puerto Rico's national table tennis team.

One of their next moves was to make sure their daughter did not meet the same fate.

Adriana Diaz started playing table tennis when she was just four years old on a table that her father set up for her in their house. Now she is 14 and ranked 170th in the world, she is the highest ranked player in her country as well as the first female table tennis player from Puerto Rico to move into the top 200 in the world.

Her parents started playing table tennis when they were almost 19 years old. They eventually qualified for the national team, but their age prevented them from making a mark at an international level.

"They didn't have any federation then, so they started like crazy, in their home," Diaz said. "They didn't have the same opportunities as I had to travel a lot."

Diaz's three sisters - Melanie, Gabriela and Fabiola - also play the sport professionally. Diaz's father coaches her and her mother helps her select the optimal foods for her athletic training, which takes up to three hours every day.

In Suzhou, she will play in the women's doubles tournament with her eldest sister, Melanie Diaz. The siblings became national doubles champions in 2014.

"We enjoy playing together so much," Adriana Diaz said. "Sometimes we fight, but that's sport. We don't care if we lose a point."

Diaz is also national champion in women's singles.

"I always wanted to play this tournament," she said. "I'm a little nervous, but I'm excited to see very good players and I want to play with people that I've never played."

Ultimately Diaz wants to be world champion and to go for Olympic gold.

"I'm practicing for it every day," she said. Endi