‘Completely unintentional’: Ball girl cries – Controversial game abandoned at French Open

As of 11:17 a.m | Reading time: 2 minutes

Es is a game-break that is extremely questionable. At the French Open, women’s doubles in the third round between Marie Bouzková (Czech Republic)/Sara Sorribes Tormo (Spain) and Miyu Kato/Aldila Sutjiadi was broken off in the second set. The duo of Kato and Sutjiadi were disqualified because the Japanese Kato hit a ball girl after hitting the ball.

The Spanish-Czech doubles had won the first set in a tie-break. With the score at 3-1 in the second half, Kato Ball backhanded it relatively easily after a lost point over the net in the direction of a ball girl who was standing in the corner of the field. The slice no longer touched the ground and hit the girl, who already had both hands full with balls and was therefore unable to react, unhappily in the neck and shoulder area.

The girl immediately burst into tears, the opponents pointed out to referee Alexandre Juge that she was hit. He then cautioned the Asian doubles. Kato went to the girl, put her hand on her shoulder and apologized for the accidental hit.

“It was totally unintentional”

But the game did not go on because Bouzková and Tormo protested that the punishment was too light in their opinion. They brought in the referee. This came on the court and disqualified Kato and Sutjiadi. Amidst whistles and boos from the audience, referee Juge announced the disqualification of Kato and Sutjiadi. The Japanese was heartbroken and burst into tears on the pitch.

“I would like to sincerely apologize to the ball girl, my partner Aldila and team and my supporters for today’s unfortunate mishap. It was completely unintentional. As a result, I am punished by Roland Garros by losing my prize money and points. I appreciate all of your continued support,” Kato wrote on Twitter.

Opponent Bouzková, who campaigned for the opponent to be punished, washed her hands in innocence: “It’s just a bad situation for everyone. But it’s kind of a thing that I think is being taken over by the rules, even if it’s very unfortunate for them. At the end of the day it was the referee’s decision.”