French Open doubles player Miyu Kato and her partner have been forced to forfeit a match when the Japanese player accidentally hit a ball girl in the neck with a ball after a point.
In the second set on Court 14 at Roland Garros on Sunday, Kato took a swing with her racquet and the ball flew towards the ball kid, who was not looking in the player’s direction while heading off the court.
At first, chair umpire Alexandre Juge only issued a warning to Kato.
But after tournament referee Remy Azemar and Grand Slam supervisor, Australian Wayne McKewen went to Court 14 to look into what happened, Kato and her partner, Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia, were disqualified.
The unfortunate episode left the ball girl crying and the disqualified Kato needing comfort from Sutjiadi because she was distressed by what she’d done.
That left Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic and Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain the winners of the match.
“It’s just a bad situation for everyone,” Bouzkova said. “But it’s kind of something that, I guess, is taken by the rules, as it is, even though it’s very unfortunate for them. At the end of the day, it was the referee’s decision.”
Bouzkova said she did not see the ball hit the ball girl, but “she was crying for like 15 minutes.”
She said one of the officials said the ball “has to do some kind of harm to the person affected” and that “at first, (Juge) didn’t see that.”
Bouzkova said she and Sorribes Tormo told Juge “to look into it more and ask our opponents what they think happened.”
During Coco Gauff’s 6-7 (5-7) 6-1 6-1 singles victory over Mirra Andreeva on Saturday, Andreev swatted a ball into the Court Suzanne Lenglen stands after dropping a point in the first set.
Andreev was given a warning by the chair umpire for unsportsmanlike conduct but no further penalty.
“I heard about that. Didn’t see it,” Bouzkova said. “I guess it just depends on the circumstances and the given situation as it happens. …
It is difficult, for sure.”
