Tempers Flare as India-Pakistan Share Spoils in Squash at SA Games

After winning her final, Joshan Chinappa said her opponent was “very aggressive” and “not playing fair”.

Saurav Ghosal (Bronze), Joshana Chinappa (Gold), Harinder Pal Sandhu (Bronze) stand with their medals at the 12th South Asian Games. (Photo: IANS)

Star player Joshna Chinappa clinched the gold in women’s individual squash after beating Maria Toorpaki Wazir of Pakistan in a tense and ill-tempered summit clash to make up for India’s disappointment in the men’s event.

Top seed Chinappa, ranked 14th in the world, recovered from one set down to beat second seeded Wazir 10-12 11-7 11-9 11-7 at the brand new squash facility at the R G Baruah Sports Complex.

With Chinappa’s gold, India has so far won three medals in squash with Sourav Ghosal and Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu having grabbed a bronze each after losing to their Pakistani opponents on Sunday.

(Photo: PTI)

The women’s final match had all the drama which was witnessed during the men’s semifinals with Chinappa expressing unhappiness to the match officials with the “aggressive” play of Wazir who was seen as trying to be a bit physical with the top-ranked Indian.

Wazir, ranked 50th in the world, won the first set 12-10 after a neck-and-neck contest but she got injured midway in the second set at 7-7 as blood came out of her left eyebrow region after contact with Chinappa and play was stopped for a while to get her treated.

Wazir is a good player but she was very aggressive. Fortunately, I won the gold but I did not enjoy playing the final. I play in the professional circuit and there, these kind of things, likes lot of interference and blocking (by rival player) does not happen. I tried to keep my self calm but I had to let them (match officials) know what was happening on the court. I cannot let things happening all the time.

Joshna Chinappa

The Pakistani was immediately given first aid and she resumed play after a few minutes. It looked like the break gave Chinappa time to ponder on her game and the Indian started dominating the match from there on - eventually winning the final.

Chinappa later made it known that she was not happy with the way the referees handled the match and that she did not enjoy playing the match as her opponent was “very aggressive” and “not playing fair”.

“I am a kind of player who plays fair, without these interfering and blocking etc. Doing all these is not nice for the spectators and also for the game,” she said.

Asked if the referees should have handled the situation better, she said, “I don’t want to be in trouble again but I feel it is their job to control the match and stop all those things. They should have done better.”