| Dates: 28 May-11 June Venue: Roland Garros, Paris |
| Coverage: Live text and radio commentaries of selected matches across BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra, the BBC Sport website and app |
A women’s doubles team was disqualified from the French Open after Japan’s Miyu Kato hit a ball girl with a ball.
Between points, Kato sent a ball cross-court towards the ball girl, hitting her shoulder and leaving her visibly distressed.
Kato was initially given a warning by the umpire but after protests from opponents Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes Tormo, they were disqualified.
She later apologised to the ball girl on Twitter.
Kato, the world number 31 in doubles, left the court in tears and was consoled by Indonesian partner Aldila Sutjiadi.
“I would like to sincerely apologize to the ball girl, my partner and my supporters because of today’s unfortunate mishap,” she wrote.
“It was completely unintentional. As a result, I am penalized by Roland Garros by forfeiting my prize money and points.”
The Japanese-Indonesian team tried to plead their case to French Open officials on the court, saying it had been accidental, and Kato went over to the ball girl to apologise in person.
One official on the court compared the incident to Novak Djokovic’s disqualification from the 2020 US Open, saying: “If you hit someone and they’re injured, then you’re responsible for that action. Even if you don’t mean it, you’re still responsible for that action.”
Czech Bouzkova and Spain’s Sorribes had taken the first set 7-6 (7-1) in the third-round encounter but were a break down at 3-1 in the second when the incident happened.
The crowd booed the decision to disqualify the 16th seeds, who were applauded off the court.
After the match, Bouzkova explained why she and Sorribes Tormo had protested to the umpire.
“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,” said the Czech.
“We told him he should look more into 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.”
According to International Tennis Federation (ITF) rules, “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…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at BBC Sport – Tennis…