In a violation of the competition rule, a controversial squash singles draw could lead to an “unfortunate” quarterfinal face-off between India’s ‘golden girls’ Dipika Pallikal and Joshana Chinappa at the Incheon Asian Games.
As per the tournament rule, two players belonging to the same country cannot be drawn in the same half. A similar situation had also arisen during the 2006 Doha Games where Saurav Ghosal beat compatriot Ritwik Bhattacharya to win an assured bronze, which led to allegations of rigging in the draw.
“It (draw) is unfortunate but it is what it is. You don’t want to play your teammate so early in the competition. We would have had shot at two medals had we were separated in the draw but even then it wasn’t a sure shot thing,” Chinappa, who combined with Pallikal to win a historic gold at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in August, said on Wednesday.
In the Asian Games, 3/4 seed Pallikal is drawn to play her 5/8 seeded teammate Chinappa in the second round, which happens to be the quarterfinals. In this scenario, India will be assured of at least a bronze for reaching the semifinals. But it could have bettered its tally had either of the player reached the semis from the other half in the draw of 32.
According to the technical handbook for the Games, the squash competition shall be conducted in accordance with the World Squash Federation (WSF) rules and regulations which state “optimum separation of players of the same nationality to be used.