Estee Ackerman, 16, of West Hempstead, a junior at the Yeshiva University High School for Girls, won four gold medals and one silver medal in the 2017 U.S. Open Table Tennis Championships held at the Las Vegas Convention Center on December 17-22. Ackerman successfully defended her title in the Women’s Hardbat event overcoming Hall of Famer Patty Martinez Wasserman, of California, in the final, two games to one by scores of 21-16, 15-21, 21-19, by the closest of margins in a very close, tense and well played match.

She teamed with Martinez-Wasserman to get gold in the Women’s Hardbat Doubles and with Larry Hodges of Maryland to win the Hardbat Mixed Doubles. Competing for the first time in the Women’s Sandpaper event she received the silver medal. Her fourth gold medal was the most rewarding for her, as she and eleven year old Avi Gupta of California seeded #2, defeated the #1 team of Jiangshan Guo (‘17 Open Jr. Girls Champ, rated 2505) and Isabella Xu of North Carolina, 3-0 in games, by scores of 11-6,11-8,11-6. Ackerman/Gupta were rated 156 points below the top seed. This was the highest rated doubles event at the tournament.

Ackerman only met her partner at the matches for the first time and didn’t even realize he was left handed until they started playing. She was one of only a few players to win medals playing with three different paddles, sponge, hardbat and sandpaper. This was her ninth trip to Las Vegas and her most successful one playing in her seventh straight U.S. Open. Ackerman was also invited by Rabbi Moishe Rodman of the Desert Torah Academy to speak at the day school about the tournament and the fact that she does not compete or practice on Shabbat or Yom Tov, as well as practice with the students there. She also visited the Mandalay Bay Memorial and spent Shabbat at the Ahavas Torah Center in Henderson. Ackerman was the only Jewish Orthodox athlete of of over 800 competing.