A pro tennis women’s doubles pair were kicked out of the French Open after one player smacked the ball into the ball girl and made her cry tears of pain. In between points, Japan’s Miyu Kato hit the tennis ball toward the ball girl, striking her on the shoulder. The young ball girl was immediately in a state of distress, so the umpire gave Kato a warning.
However, Kato’s opponents, Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes Tormo challenged the umpire to upgrade the penalty against the Japanese player. As a result, the umpire disqualified Kato and her Indonesian partner Aldila Sutjiadi, causing the match to end as a result.
Kato tried to calm down the ball girl after she struck her with a tennis ball. She also apologized for hitting the girl with the ball, which she told officials was a complete accident and did not happen on purpose. Nevertheless, the strike injured the ball girl enough to have her escorted off the court by officials after she broke down in tears during the French Open.
Eventually, umpire Alexandre Juge confirmed that Kato and her partner were to be disqualified from the match. This decision caused Kato to, in turn, break down in tears herself.
Eurosport tweeted, “A controversial ending to a women’s doubles match as Kato/Sutjiadi were disqualified for hitting a ball girl.”
While the judges were deciding whether to disqualify Kato and her partner or not, one official compared Kato’s incident with the 2020 disqualification of Novak Djokovic, who struck a line judge in the throat with a tennis ball during the 2020 United States Open.
“If you hit someone and they’re injured, then you’re responsible for that action,” the official said. “Even if you don’t mean it, you’re still responsible for that action.”
After Kato and Sutjiadi were disqualified, the crowd jeered the players and the judges for the decision. As the pair walked off the court, they were applauded by the crowd. Nevertheless, the applause was not enough to bring the players into good spirits after the huge mistake that cost them their chance to compete in the French Open.
Bouzkova explained their protest afterward: “It’s difficult. The girl was crying for 15 minutes. I think the warning first happened because he [the umpire] didn’t see she was crying, and she was in that kind of pain. We told him he should look more into it because the girl was crying, and the ball went directly at her; it wasn’t kind of a slower ball. We told them [Kato and Sutjiadi] it’s very unfortunate.”
The rule book argues that players “shall not violently, dangerously or with anger hit, kick or throw a tennis ball within the precincts of the tournament site except in the reasonable pursuit of a point during a match (including warm-up). In all cases of default, the decision of the referee in consultation with the grand slam chief of supervisors shall be final and unappealable.”