The beginning

Angelica Edelstein was born in Bucharest, Romania, on October 15, 1921 to a bourgeois family. Angelica’s brother, Gaston, was the one who taught her how to play table tennis. She became sick with scarlet fever at the age of 8-½, and while in convalescence, her brother came home with bats, balls and a net to entertain her (he was 7-½ years older than her). After a while, he bought a regulation table that they placed in a large big empty room and there she started to play. Together with a few girlfriends from school, she joined the Jewish Aurora Sports Club in Bucharest where she excelled in most sports areas, but she chose to specialize in table tennis.

The beginnings were encouraging. After a while, the Aurora Club, which organized summer tournaments, moved in across the street from their house. Angelica participated in summer competitions and came in 3^rd then 2^nd and finally 1^st place.

When Angelica was 12-½ half years old, she won the Romanian Cup for seniors (at the time there were no junior competitions), but lost in the National Championship finals (in the third and final game) after leading by 1-0 and 20-16. The first time she participated in a world championship was in 1936 in Prague (at the age of 15). She had advanced two rounds, and was impressed by Ruth Aarons (from the United States) who won the championship and by Victor Barna with whom she became friends and played Mixed Doubles at Csegled in the Hungarian International Championship. There she won an international competition for the first time.