Hi,

it might help you to check under youtube for Maya - UV-editor. You are going to find a lot of tutorials on how to...
https://youtu.be/Qr4thvmibSk

If you have checked in the internet or documentation regarding your texture problem further you might have found out already that the UV-Editor is the key to remove unwanted strechings from your texture.
In the texture Editor you can move and scale only the UV's of you model (UV is the information of the texture coordinates located on the model like in a x-y coordinate system) Changing the UV location will not change the model, but how the texture is played on it.
Basically I would recommend for the start following workflow:

1. The kind of projection you should choose according the general shape of your model(cylinder, sphere or cubic), you might even break the projection down into smaller pieces for example the round legs of a table and then the cubic table plate. This will reduce the probability of stretched textures.
2. It make sense to apply first any plain material with the checker texture applied. So you can see directly where the UV projection produced a stretched application of the texture.
3. To apply your texture properly it will be most probably necessary to work with the UV-Editor (you can open it easiest under "windows => UV editor). Once you have applied the project you will see the UV's of your model laid out according the projection.
The art of the whole process is to adjust the UV's with moving and scaling in this way that the texture doesn't look stretched anymore, which you can easy control on the model with the checker texture applied.
You chose the UV's in the editor with RMB and UV, then all movings are possible like in the model space.
Depending also on the kind of projection you have chosen, it will be necessary to sew or cut edges to join or separate parts.
Once the checker texture looks even in all directions your UV mapping was successful and you may apply your own texture instead.
One step further ahead you can do a UV-Snapshot in the Editor under "polygons"
This produces a picture of your UV layout, which you can save and work with it for example in Photoshop.
In Photoshop you load this picture and paint or copy your texture into the desired UVs.

Hope it helps, Definitely you will find better descriptions in Youtube under UV-Texture Editing and also you find Tutorials under Simply Maya about this Topic.

Best regards

Jens