Japan’s Miyu Kato has claimed that officials at the French Open told her that she wouldn’t have controversially been disqualified from her match if she had hit a ball boy instead of a ball girl.
The 28-year-old was playing alongside Aldila Sutjiadi in the third round of the women’s doubles tournament against Sara Sorribes Tormo and Marie Bouzková. Midway through the second set, Kato hit a ball to the other end of the court which accidentally struck a ball girl in the head. The umpire then initially issued a warning to Kato. However, Tormo and Bouzkova pointed out that the girl was crying which resulted in the tournament supervisor being called to the court. Shortly afterwards it was decided that Kato and her partner would be defaulted.
Speaking about the incident earlier this week in an interview with Clay Magazine, the world No.31 doubles player shed light on her discussion with both the umpire and supervisor after that match. Kato says she was told that the gender of the ball kid and the amount of time she was crying was the reason why she got disqualified. She was also told if she had hit the girl in another part of her body she wouldn’t have received any penalty.
“I just passed the ball to the ball kids for my opponents to serve,” she recalled.
“The umpire and the supervisor talked to me afterwards and said, ‘If the ball kid was a boy, it would have been ok.’ They also explained to me that since the girl cried for more than 15 minutes they had to make a decision because if she had stopped after five minutes, everything would have been allright; or if the ball had hit her legs or arms, everything would have been okay. But no, because it was in the neck it was different.”
Kato said she received a text message from Bouzkova after the incident but didn’t reply. The Czech tennis player and Tormo both protested to the umpire that she should have been defaulted immediately for hitting the ball girl. Tormo has since denied allegations of poor sportsmanship for their actions.
As a result of the disqualification, Kato lost all of her ranking points (240) and prize money (21,500 euros). She appealed against that penalty but was unsuccessful.
“Since I couldn’t have the Roland Garros points, I have to win at Wimbledon. Although I like clay, not grass,” she said.
However, it wasn’t all bad news for her at the French Open. In the mixed doubles, she claimed the title alongside Germany’s Tim Puetz.
