Ballgirl in tears, a French Open doubles team is disqualified
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A French Open doubles team was disqualified midway through the second set Sunday after one of the players hit a ballgirl near her head while swatting a ball off the court. The seemingly inadvertent incident occurred between points, with the 16th-seeded duo of Japan’s Miyu Kato and Indonesia’s Aldila Sutjiadi up 3-1 after dropping the first set to Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic and Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo. Kato swatted a ball that was not in play to the opposite far side of the court, where it struck the apparently unsuspecting ballgirl.
As the ballgirl became visibly upset, chair umpire Alexandre Juge issued a warning to Kato. Eventually, Juge was joined by Grand Slam supervisor Wayne McKewen and tournament referee Remy Azémar as Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo pressed the umpire to reconsider. After the three officials conferred with the players, Juge announced to the Roland Garros crowd that Kato and Sutjiadi were disqualified.
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Kato, who had gone over to the ballgirl to apologize, appeared tearful at the decision, and she was comforted by her playing partner.
a tough scene in Paris. Doubles partners Kato/Sutjiadi just got defaulted as Kato hit a ball girl accidentally at 6-7(1), 3-1.#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/A7BIshh1CX — Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) June 4, 2023
Following her side’s 7-6 (7-1), 3-1 victory in the third round, Bouzkova said she and Sorribes Tormo were “shaken up by this as well.”
“Sara and I, we’ve never been in this kind of situation,” said the 24-year-old Czech (via tennis.com), who is the WTA’s 33rd-ranked singles player. “It’s just a tough situation for everyone. But it’s something that, I guess, has to be taken by the rules as it is, even though it’s very unfortunate for them.”
Kato subsequently apologized in a Twitter post to the ballgirl, Sutjiadi and her supporters for the “unfortunate mishap.”
“It was completely unintentional,” the 28-year-old Japanese player wrote. “As a result, I am penalized by [Roland Garros] by forfeiting my prize money & points. I appreciate all your continued support!”
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The WTA rule book states players can be punished for “abuse of balls,” which includes “intentionally or recklessly hitting a ball out of the enclosure of the court, hitting a ball dangerously or recklessly within the court, or hitting a ball with disregard of the consequences.”
According to Reuters, after Juge gave his initial warning, he told Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo that Kato “didn’t do it on purpose” and that the ballgirl “didn’t get injured.”
Sorribes Tormo reportedly responded by pointing out the ballgirl was “crying” and Bouzkova said “she has blood,” at which point Juge went over to the ballgirl for a closer look.
Bouzkova said afterward (via the Associated Press) that she heard one of the officials note the ball “has to do some kind of harm to the person affected” to trigger a disqualification. She thought Juge “didn’t see” the ballgirl’s reaction right away, so she said she asked him to “look into it more and ask our opponents what they think happened.”
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For what a number of observers felt was an act of poor sportsmanship after they pushed Juge for a harsher punishment of their opponents, Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo were the subjects of some criticism. Tennis analyst and former WTA player Pam Shriver noted on Twitter that Bouzkova was given the tour’s 2020 sportsmanship award and wondered if “today’s events” would make it the last such honor for Bouzkova. Former ATP standout Gilles Simon tweeted in French that he hoped Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo “will have a little trouble falling asleep.”
The unusual sequence Sunday reminded many of a stunning moment at the 2020 U.S. Open, when top-seeded Novak Djokovic was disqualified from a fourth-round match for hitting a ball that struck a lineswomen. A tournament referee said then that while the outcome appeared to have been unintentional on Djokovic’s part, there was “no other option” than to disqualify him because the lineswoman was “clearly hurt, clearly in pain.”
Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo, who are unseeded, move on to a fourth-round match against Australia’s Ellen Perez and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States. Also in the singles draw, Sorribes Tormo has advanced to a fourth-round matchup with Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia after her third-round foe, reigning Wimbledon champion and world No. 4 Elena Rybakina, withdrew from the tournament with a respiratory illness.
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Source: The Washington Post
