cnn
—
A French Open doubles match ended controversially on Sunday when No. 16 seeds Miyu Kato and Aldila Sutjiadi were disqualified from the tournament after a ball hit a ball girl.
After losing the first set to Spain's Sara Sorribes Tormo and Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic, Kato of Japan and Sutjiadi of Indonesia were leading 3-1 in the second set of their third-round match when the incident occurred.
Eurosport's coverage showed Kato innocuously hitting the ball into the back of the court after a point, and although it didn't look like he had intentionally wanted to hit the ball girl, the ball hit his head. Standing at the back of the court, the tearful ball girl was visibly shaken.
Chair umpire Alexandre Juge issued a code violation before Grand Slam supervisor Wayne McKewen and tournament referee Remy Azemar appeared on Court 14. After discussions between the referees and players, it was announced that Kato and Sutjiadi They had been suspended.
The Roland Garros crowd greeted the news with boos and jeers, while Sutjiadi consoled Kato.
Tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg tweeted: “Brutal call. The ball was not hit in anger at all, it was simply passed to the ball girl to keep the flow of the match going because it was the other team's turn of serve. The ball girl was very busy and reacted late.”
It is not the first time that a player suffers a default in a Grand Slam. One of the most notorious incidents occurred in 2020 when Novak Djokovic's US Open ended early after he was suspended for unintentionally hitting a line judge.
According to the Grand Slam rule book, players “shall not hit, kick or throw a tennis ball in a violent, dangerous or angry manner within the tournament grounds, except in the reasonable pursuit of a point during a match (including The warm-up). ”
The rule book states: “In all cases of non-compliance, the decision of the referee in consultation with the Chief Grand Slam Supervisor shall be final and unappealable.”
A player who does not fulfill his obligations loses all ranking points earned in the tournament, as established in the rule book, and all prize money earned in the tournament.
