Sathiyan Gnanasekaran alleges unfair umpiring at WTT Contender Lagos after second round defeat

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran became the first Indian to win a men’s singles title at a WTT Feeder Series event in March.

Indian table tennis star Sathiyan Gnanasekaran recently took to social media and alleged unfair umpiring at the 2024 WTT Contender Lagos.

The incident took place in the second round of the men’s singles event when Gnanasekaran was playing against France’s Thibault Poret. The Indian paddler lost the two initial games with an identical scoreline of 8-11.

He was struggling to stay compact and secure points on his serve. However, Sathiyan bounced back strongly in the third and fourth games to make the match even 8-11, 8-11, 11-4, 11-5.

Gnanasekaran was leading 2-0 in the decider, but later, a service fault was given to Thibault Poret. The Frenchman also decided to take a medical timeout in the final game, which eventually broke the Indian paddler’s rhyme and he ended up losing the decider 6-11.

(2/4)I made a good comeback from 2 sets down & was leading 2-0 in the final set , the opponent was given a service fault (he was even given a warning before), after a lot of quarrel with the referee, out of the blue , he just takes a medical timeout just to kill time ,

— Sathiyan Gnanasekaran OLY (@sathiyantt) June 21, 2024

Disappointed by the umpiring decisions, he took to social media and uploaded a series of posts. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran wrote, “UNFAIR UMPIRING AT ITS WORST here in LAGOS. I never normally complain about these things, but what just happened today is beyond imagination and was totally unfair.”

He went on to explain the whole incident to fans and the audience on social media. The Indian paddler talked about how his winning rhyme was broken by the Frenchman via the medical break.

(4/4), probably just to make it even which totally spoiled my rhythm 😢We players work so hard and such kind of unfair umpiring at the international level & to rob a match like this is certainly very disappointing 😒@WTTGlobal

— Sathiyan Gnanasekaran OLY (@sathiyantt) June 21, 2024

He added, “I made a good comeback from two sets down and was leading 2-0 in the final set, the opponent was given a service fault (he was even given a warning before), after a lot of quarrel with the referee, out of the blue, he just takes a medical timeout just to kill time.”

Sathiyan further wrote, “When he had no medical issue until then and to my surprise it was granted as well. Then when I was leading 3-1 in the last set, I was given a service fault out of nowhere without even a warning, in the serve in which i was getting a lot of points.”

Also Read: Sathiyan Gnanasekaran makes history in Beirut, wins first-ever WTT Feeder title

He also wrote that players work hard to play at the tournament and unfair results will have a direct effect on their morale.

Sathiyan concluded, “Probably just to make it even which totally spoiled my rhythm. We players work so hard and such kind of unfair umpiring at the international level and to rob a match like this is certainly very disappointing.”

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