Nationally ranked table tennis prodigy Estee Ackerman of West Hempstead, NY, came away with five medals playing in nine events at the 2016 U.S. Open Table Tennis Championships held on December 12-17 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Ackerman, 15, won two gold medals in both the Women’s Hardbat Singles and Doubles events and the silver in Hardbat Mixed Doubles. Hardbat matches are played with “old school “ style rackets with just a rubber sheet and no sponge underneath. Her most success occurred in the Junior Girls Teams where she and partner Angie Tan of California won their first three matches. Playing for a spot in the finals, they fell behind Team Canada 0-2 before winning the Middle Doubles Match in five close games. The Reverse Singles Match saw Tan win 3-2 to tie up the series at 2-2. Ackerman then battled Benita Zhou in a very tense, edge-of-your-seat match and prevailed 11-8 in the fifth game to give them the 3-2 victory.
In the finals they were defeated by Croatia 3-0 with Ackerman losing to the number one Junior 3-0 and getting the silver medal. In the Under 2100 rating event, which is the sixth highest rated event out of twenty seven, and had 239 players, Ackerman was seeded number 16. After being victorious in her first five matches, she upset the overall number one seed Ray Huang of NJ, winning 14-12 in the fifth and deciding game. Ackerman had a 10-8 lead, only to lose the next three points. After saving a match point herself, she won the next two points and the match. In the quarters she defeated number six seed Kenny Jiang of Canada in another close match 3-2 after trailing 2-1 in games, but in the semi-finals she was defeated by eventual winner David Lin of British Columbia 3-1. For her efforts she received the bronze medal. Overall she finished with a final match record of 24-10, going 18-8 in singles and 6-2 in doubles. The five medals were the most she has ever won in a single tournament.
As much as she had an amazing tournament her Shabbat would be quite memorable as well. Staying as guests of the organization Panim el Panim, they had a weekend gathering of Holocaust survivors, their families and friends. Speakers included Commander Eugene Lebovitz (Holocaust Survivor), the Honorable Dani Dayan, Consul General of Israel, Rabbi Hershel Billet of the YI Woodmere and Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The shabbaton took place at the magnificent Palazzo Hotel where Ackerman also spoke on Shabbat during lunch, telling about her ping pong exploits. Ackerman is grateful to the rabbis, teachers and administration of Yeshiva University High School for Girls for giving her this opportunity.
