Tennis champ meets his match at ping-pong

As if preparing for her bas mitzvah, finishing her summer homework, and getting ready for Yom Tov, wasn’t already keeping her busy, Estee Ackerman, 11, of West Hempstead, played tennis champion and 12-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal in a ping-pong match in New York City on Thursday, Aug. 22.

Many wondered if a top player in a racquet sport could defeat a youngster who is a top ranked and trained player. Ackerman — who is ranked sixth in her age group for table tennis — is sponsored by Killerspin, a table tennis company that put the match together, in conjunction with Nike sponsoring the event.

A crowd of over 500 spectators, many from the entertainment and sports industry, watched as Ackerman strategically and tactfully moved the ball around the table in winning the majority of the points.

Following the match, Ackerman wished Nadal good luck in the US OPEN, an event he won in 2010, which is currently taking place at the National Tennis Center in Flushing, NY over the next two weeks.

Ackerman — who defaulted the 2012 US Nationals when her next match was to take place on Shabbos — is a seventh grader at the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County.