S'pore paddlers applauded for returning 'unfair' point to Argentinian opponents, giving up their win

Two Singapore paddlers won the hearts of fans and opponents alike after a heartwarming show of sportsmanship in a recent match.

Believing that they had been unfairly awarded a point after their opponents were penalised, Izaac Quek and Koen Pang opted to deliberately forfeit the next point to even out the game.

Their actions eventually contributed to their loss, but gained the attention of netizens and even Singapore's President Tharman Shanmugaratnam for losing "the right way".

Unfair point

The incident occurred on Feb. 24 at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Singapore Smash held at The Kallang's OCBC Arena.

With a tied score of 5-5 in the deciding set of a nail-biting game, the duo's Argentinian opponents, world No. 30 pair Horacio Cifuentes and Santiago Lorenzo were suddenly handed a red card by the umpire, who ruled that they had taken too long to serve.

World No. 4 duo Quek and Pang were awarded a point but their opponents protested, arguing that the Singaporean pair were still in discussion and not yet ready for the serve.

However, the umpire's decision was not reversed and the score became 6-5 in favour of the Singaporeans.

Quek and Pang appeared to agree that the point had been unfairly awarded, nonetheless, when they conceded the point in the next round, restoring the points to 6-6.

Their show of sportsmanship was met with applause from the crowd and their opponents.

The Argentinian duo eventually won the round with a score of 11-9 to reach the quarterfinals.

According to The Straits Times, Quek said, "The red card was for time-wasting, but both of us were not ready, so technically, that’s not really time-wasting."

"I said to the umpire that it’s not fair and then the umpire said it is her decision, so we have to continue with the match...So we returned the point to them, which is deserved."

Pang added that the match was tight and could have gone either way, but nonetheless called the decision made by the umpire "incorrect".

Lorenzo, meanwhile, expressed his gratitude to the Singapore pair, saying, "it was not their obligation to give us this point. So we have a lot of respect for them."

Online, Quek and Pang's actions also enacted admiration and praise, with one commenter saying that they "lost the match but won our hearts".

President Tharman chimed in in a Facebook post, saying, "Respect to Izaac and Koen. Better to lose the right way than to win the wrong way."

"They chose sportsmanship over winning. It’s how life is best lived," he wrote.

Top images via World Table Tennis/YouTube