Miyu Kato and Aldila SutjiadI were rejected in the French Open tennis tournament at the end of a series of unpleasant events. Harri Heliövaara and Lloyd Glasspool also dropped out of the continuation.
A rare and unfortunate situation was seen at the French Open tennis tournament on Sunday, when a Japanese player Miyu Kato the hit ball hit the ball girl standing at the opposite end of the field. Kato played an Indonesian Aldila Sutjiadin with the women’s doubles match, but the pair was abandoned due to an injury situation.
A pair of opponents Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes Tormo got a place in the quarterfinals after rejection.
Kato’s intention was to hit the ball into the opponent’s half of the court after the point, but the Japanese knuckleball had too much power and the aim was completely lost. Kato, 28, ran to apologize to the shocked girl.
See the situation below.
Judge Alexandre Juge gave Kato a warning first. However, Czech Bouzkova and Spanish Sorribes Tormo asked the referee to disqualify the Asian pair.
– No, no, let me explain. Kato didn’t do it on purpose, and the ball girl wasn’t hurt, Juge said recently.
However, the European couple did not agree with the judge.
– He didn’t do it on purpose? The ball girl is crying, Sorribes Tormo said.
– And he is in the blood, Bouzkova added.
The Czech player told the referee to go to the ball girl. The referee went to check the situation of the tearful ball girl, returned to his chair, talked to the match supervisor who was called to the field and ended the match by rejecting Kato and Sutjiad.
Kato left the field with tears in his eyes, and Sutjiadi consoled his partner on the way to the dressing room.
Watch Sorribes Tormo and Bouzkova’s conversation with the judge below.
After the match, Bouzkova explained why they protested the referee’s decision to only warn their opponents.
– The girl cried for 15 minutes. I think the judge only gave a warning at first because he didn’t see the girl crying and in pain, Bouzkova said.
– We asked the referee to check the situation, because the ball flew straight towards the girl and the hit was not very slow, he continued.
Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo won the first set 7–6, but were down 3–1 in the second set at the time of the interruption.
Novak Djokovic was disqualified in a similar situation at the 2020 US Open when the Serbian star recklessly hit the ball into the neck of the linesman.
The Heliövaara games also ended
Harri Heliövaara and Lloyd Glasspool were eliminated in the doubles as well. The pair lost their quarterfinals to the duo Andreas Mies and Matwe Middelkoop directly in two installments with chapters 4–6, 2–6.
– Rarely in doubles can an opponent play such a flawless match. We didn’t really find any way to get into the match, Heliövaara said after the match.
He regretted being knocked out early, but said he believed the doubles pair’s “hitting spot” would come in the next tournament.
– Such results belong to the sport. The further we go in the tournament, there are couples with good self-confidence on the other side of the net, Heliövaara said.
The German-Dutch pair ranked twelfth in the tournament will meet the third ranked pair in the next round Marcelo Arevalo – Jean-Julien Rojer.
Heliövaara and Glasspool, who won one ATP tournament this year, will not play together in the following tournaments. The calculated time for the second child of the Heliövaara family is at the end of June, and the player will be on paternity leave for the next few weeks. Heliövaara will return to the fields at the end of July.