Is it illegal to touch the table with your racket?

Here's something I've found on youtube...



The ball does not leave his racket and he walks over to the otherside of the table and places it gently

Great skills, but if you were playing him and somehow this situation happened will you call foul play???

I just this video again. Legal or not?

1) I was in a comp where the tables are next to each other with no barriers. During a hit (simultaneously after the hit), my opponent bumped the player on the other table and turned around (not facing our table). This was all happening right in front of me. I didn't make proper contact with the ball because I assumed a let. If I hit the ball in, the opponent wouldn't have had a chance to return the ball (like an automatic point for me). The umpire was sitting on the side where the players bumped and said he didn't see as he was following the ball. He also said that the bump didn't affect the shot. It didn't affect his shot but everything in my view caused an interruption/disruption or whatever you call it (almost like a player crossing at the back or another ball in our field of play).

Is it a let?

2) Also, in social comps where a lot of players don't follow the new serve rules. How do you enforce it? I normally see the quick (top spin) serve (very low toss) or very spinny serves (low toss again). These players have been playing for a long time. It's difficult for them to change to open hand toss with the height of the net. You can immediately see this when they toss the ball higher, they miss their serve.

It is not a let until the umpire says it is a let. Were you watching the ball at all? You should have just returned the ball on the table and raised your hand to request a let and played till either a let was given or the point was reserved. Most umpires will give a let in this circumstance, I would have thought, but you need to have made a good return.

This has been the bane of my existence as an umpire where I play in a pennants competition, and the teams alternate in providing an "umpire". I used to play in a team that consisted of myself being a state or provincial level umpire, an international referee and the secretary of the state or provincial TT body. All 3 of us knew exactly the requirements of a good serve, but woe and betide us if we even warned our opposition about their serving. I personally wait until the end of the night and have a quiet word with such players and point out exactly what the problem is. I then often get told that others do worse etc as some sort of excuse. The things that I have pointed out:

Starting the serve over the table (they then either bring the ball back behind the table before tossing, or throw the ball backwards so the ball is behind the table when actually struck)
Not throwing the ball the requisite height (usually pimples players so they can either serve very short or surprise you)
Not keeping the ball above the level of the table during the service action
Not throwing the ball vertically up
Not taking the free arm out of the way until the very last instant, which can lead to
Hiding the ball or contact

Admittedly, some of these are technical, but they are the rules.

The only thing I agree with is it's the umpires call. But the umpire can still be wrong in reality.

That is the point though... it's the umpire's decision. It does not matter if the umpire is wrong, did not see it, feels that the incident happened after the ball could have been hit, or just sees things differently to you... it's their call to decide if it's a let or not. You should try and make the next shot just in case the umpire decides it's not a let. Umpires will makes mistakes at times, and we all need to accept this as part of the game, even if we're 100% sure the umpire is wrong.

In reality almost all umpire would give you let if there was any doubt though, especially if your opponent also agrees it should have been a let.

As per my original/modified question, is it or should it be a let?

jazzcomp wrote:

Having said that, a reasonable umpire should have seen that play was being disrupted by something outside of you and your opponent, and given the let.

In doubles, how can an umpire call correctly a wrong side serve when he cannot see if the ball landed on the line or not?

This is almost always a point of argument when the server says it's in and both opponents says it's not.