ily Yip defeated Marty Reisman 3-0 in the hardbat championship finals. Not 3 games to 0, but 3 points to 0.Here is a blow by blow account of the dramatic match.Marty served twice, Lily returned with sharp topspin and won both points in short rallies. Then play was suspended as an umpire arrived. We will pause while the umpire shuffles his papers and takes his seat at the side of the table.
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There had been no umpires in the semi-finals hardbat matches...very few matches in the entire tournament were umpired...and Marty and Lily assumed their match would be played without an umpire. Hardbat finals was not a featured match. It was being played in a corner of the arena late Friday afternoon with only a small group of spectators who were mostly friends of Marty and Lily. And yet this was possibly going to be a historic match.

Lily was the favorite. She won the Nationals U.S. Open hardbat title this summer in Florida, and was national closed hardbat champion in 2003. She defeated Steve Berger in the finals of the open tournament in Florida, and again in the semi-finals at Las Vegas. Steve said Lily dominated him in the Florida tournament, but he played close games in the Las Vegas semi-final match, and thought if he had played just a little better... Well, anyway, Lily had to work hard to win game and match points against Steve in a contest of long rallies where she pounded drives to the corners and Steve sliced heavy chop returns. Lily may be at the top of her hardbat game.

Marty has won numerous national and international titles in a table tennis career that began in 1943. When he won the national hardbat singles title in 1997 at age 68, he was the oldest player to ever win an unrestricted by age national championship.If he won again in 2005 at age 75, it might set a record that would never be broken. But did he have any chance against Lily? He thought he did. In a semi-final match Rudy Miranda and Marty played long counter driving rallies. The years seemed to peel off of Marty and he resembled the young, quick hitting kid who used to smash through opponents. Rudy did most of the driving in the match, but Marty's close to the table chop kept him in position for quick counter drives whenever a ball was a bit high or a bit slow. And Marty's touch on short blocks and drop shots was excellent. When he won match point, Marty smiled to his friends and said, "The old man doesn't look so old, does he?" We anticipated some great counter driving rallies in the finals.
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The umpire is ready now, so the match will resume. Marty served again...Lily slapped another topspin return...the umpire said fault...Marty threw his bat on the table and shouted, "That does it!" There was more shouting, and then some quiet argueing involving Marty, Lily, the umpire and a tournament referee. Marty wanted to continue the match without an umpire, and Lily was o.k. with this. But the umpire and referee said the players could not choose to do this. Marty was given a one minute time out to decide if he wanted to continue the match. He decided to default rather than play under the pressure of having to think about his serving technique.

I'm not certain whether Marty's serve was illegal because he didn't toss it up a minimum of 16 centimeters, or if he didn't toss it near vertically. The rules say if a serve is clearly illegal the umpire may call it a fault without any warning, and that is what happened. In my match against Marty I had no trouble with his serves. Lily had no problem with them. I didn't see any of his opponents during the tournament in many close matches have problems with Marty's serves. Marty said he believed 90% of the players in the tournament were making illegal serves if the rules were strictly enforced by umpires, and there was general agreement among those watching that this was true.

During the arguement Lily smiled and hugged Marty, and tried to get him to loosen up. When the default was definite, Marty and his friends congratulated Lily on her championship. She thanked them and said she would much rather have played the match. Some friends suggested that they play a money match just for bragging rights. But this wouldn't be the same as an official championship match, and neither Marty nor Lily wanted to do it. In retrospect Lily earned the championship with her good win over Steve Berger, also a former national hardbat champion.

The real losers were the spectators and table tennis history. The possibly historic match was not played because one serve was ruled illegal, and Marty was too psyched up to calmly work through the incident.

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