MARIA Tsaptsinos feels England’s experience as hosts of the Team World Cup in London can only help them grow stronger.

The Reading star was part of a five-player squad as England, who were the lowest-seeded of the 12 teams, were knocked out of the group stage.

A 3-0 defeat by third seeds Hong Kong was followed by a 3-1 reverse against sixth-ranked Singapore, meaning they did not qualify for the knock-out stages.

Tsaptsinos, ranked No. 360 in the world, featured in the opening doubles match in both fixtures alongside Kelly Sibley and they performed creditably.

The pair lost 3-1 (11-3, 9-11, 11-7, 11-7) to Lee Ho Ching and Soo Wai Yam Minnie of Hong Kong, both ranked inside the top 25, and then 3-0 (11-4, 11-2, 11-8) to world No. 3 and No. 51 Feng Tianwei and Yu Mengyu of Singapore.

“I felt me and Kelly didn’t really show what we’re capable of in the doubles, and how we’ve been performing in practice, but as a whole the team performed well,” said Tsaptsinos, who will be part of the England team at the Commonwealth Games in Australia in April.

“Everyone showed they could compete against the best in the world and had close matches. We don’t play against top-50 players all the time, so it’s good to get that experience.”

The competition was won by China for the 10th time, beating Japan 3-0 in the final.