PARIS (AP) – Japanese doubles players Miyu Kato and her Indonesian partner Aldila Sutjiadi were disqualified from their match at the French Open on Sunday after Kato accidentally hit a girl’s ball boy in the neck after a point. Had given.
In the second set of the duel on Court 14 at Roland Garros, Kato clears a ball with his racket and it hits the ball boy, who was not paying attention to where the player was when he left the court .
In the first instance, chair umpire Alexander Juge issued a warning to Kato. But after Rémi Azemar, the tournament’s chief judge, and Wayne McEwen, the Grand Slam observer, came to the court to find out what had happened, Kato and Sutjidi were disqualified.
Czech Marie Buzkova and Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo were declared winners.
“It’s a bad situation for everyone,” Bouzkova said. “But it’s something that, I think, follows the rules. And although it’s a very unfortunate thing for them … it’s a decision that’s consistent with the judge.”
Buzkova said she did not see the ball hit the ball boy, but that the girl “was crying for 15 minutes.”
He said that one of the officials explained that the ball “didn’t cause any kind of damage to the person affected” and that “initially, (Jug) didn’t care.”
Bouzkova noted that she and Sorribes Tormo asked Jug “to find out more about what happened and to ask our rivals for their opinion on what happened.”
During Coco Gauff’s 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-1 win over Mira Andreeva on Saturday, Andreev threw the ball into the stands of Suzanne Lenglen Stadium after missing a point in the first set. The Russian player received a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct, but nothing more.
“I know about that. I haven’t seen it,” said Bouzkova. “I think it depends on the circumstances and those are things that could happen … It’s undoubtedly something complicated.”
In another infamous incident that occurred in the round of 16 of the US Open three years earlier, Novak Djokovic was disqualified from his match against Pablo Carreno-Busta after striking a linesman in the groin with a ball. .
Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo will face Australian Ellen Perez and American Nicole Melichar-Martinez in the quarterfinals.
