Sathiyan Gnanasekaran alleges unfair refereeing at WTT Contender Lagos after second round loss

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 refereeing during the WTT Contender Lagos 2024.

The incident occurred in the second round of the men’s singles when Gnanasekaran was playing against Frenchman Thibault Poret. The Indian paddler lost the first two matches with an identical score of 8-11.

He struggled to stay compact and get points on his serve. However, Sathiyan bounced back strongly in the third and fourth games to bring the match level at 8-11, 8-11, 11-4, 11-5.

Gnanasekaran led 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 match, which ultimately broke the Indian paddler’s rhyme and he ended up losing the deciding match 6-11.

(2/4)I made a good comeback at 2 sets and led 2-0 in the last set, the opponent received a service fault (he even received a warning before), after numerous arguments 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 referees’ decisions, he took to social media and posted a series of messages. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran wrote: “UNFAIR ARBITRATION AT ITS WORST here in LAGOS. Normally I never complain about things like this, but what just happened today is beyond imagination and totally unfair.

He later explained the entire incident to fans and the public on social media. The Indian paddler explained how his winning rhyme was broken by the Frenchman during the medical break.

(4/4), probably just to equalize, which totally ruined my rhythm 😢We players work so hard and have such unfair refereeing at international level & stealing a match like this is certainly very disappointing 😒@WTTGlobal

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

He added: “I came back well after two sets down and I was leading 2-0 in the final set, the opponent received a service fault (he even received a warning before), after many arguments with the referee, out of the blue, he just takes a medical timeout just to kill time.

Sathiyan further wrote, “While he had no medical issues till then and to my surprise, this was also granted. Then, when I was leading 3-1 in the last set, I received a service error out of nowhere, without even a warning, on the serve where I was winning a lot of points.

Read also: Sathiyan Gnanasekaran makes history in Beirut and wins first ever WTT title Feeder

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

Sathiyan concluded: “Probably just to equalize, which totally ruined my rhythm. We players work so hard and have such unfair refereeing at international level and to steal a match like this is certainly very disappointing.

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