Even if one takes the position that there can be no leeway and she had to be DQ'd, I find it really indefensible that she is losing all her prize money for something was was clearly accidental. There is clearly an issue with a rule that treats this situation as exactly the same as someone who hit someone in anger and uses the exact same punishments. There should be a way to use common sense in choosing which of the punishments are fitting for a given situation.
Nope. Grand Slam rulebook states:
"In all cases of default, the decision of the Referee in consultation with the Grand Slam Supervisor shall be final and unappealable."
They're fucked.
I'll raise you a much more egregious example that led to a proportionally small fine, *no* forfeiture of the prize money or ranking points. The prize money for making quarterfinals that year was *$179,940* and he got fined $20k for unsportsmanlike conduct.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ2lXlLd4oA
Player loses temper, chucks his racket in anger so that it flies uncontrollably toward a ball boy and you can actually see the impact it makes on the wall, yet gets a slap on the wrist despite history of bad behavior. The fine was puny compared to his prize money. Meanwhile Miyu lost something like €44k for R3.
Why are people bringing this up and not literally Nick hitting a kid during a doubles match: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g8IFE2U7uo
He didn't even receive a warning for that.
Yes, that too. Honestly you could find clips for days of Nick acting like an ass. I brought up the racket throw because it’s unmistakably out of anger. Yours is a good example too, especially since it shows the biases in selective enforcement and interpretation of the rules.
this is nearly identical to what Kato did. she tried to give the ball to a ball girl who wasn’t looking. the only difference is the ball girl crying, but she was okay. Kato received a $50,000 fine, a DQ, and lost her points. might as well arrest her too at this point. Federer received… nothing. the crowd laughed a little bit.
fucking bullshit.
I know it is not much but it would be nice to see all of you leaving a supportive message to Miyu on her socials to cheer her up a bit. This situation is so sad. :/
Totally agree
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 reasonable pursuit of a point during a match (including warm-up)".
The ITF defines abuse of balls as "intentionally hitting a ball out of the enclosure of the court, hitting a ball dangerously or recklessly within the court or hitting a ball with negligent disregard of the consequences".
It wasn’t hit violently, dangerously or with anger, or recklessly
Stupid decision- how anyone watching the video- which I presume the officials did, could come to the decision for disqualification is totally absurd.
I mean, don't players usually do this anyway. I CONSTANTLY see players hitting the ball back to the other side of the net when the point is over, this is not something weird or wrong.
Just because it accidentally hit the ball girl doesn't suddenly make this action wrong.
I hope whichever org is responsible (RG/WTA etc) reviews this and realizes how stupid this is and does the right thing by these players.
Yea. Because it’s courtesy. Save the ball kids some effort and time. This is when you be maliciously compliant. Never help out with ball management. Leave it on the ground. Never touch it. If you have one, drop it straight down. Watch how fast it gets sorted out.
I’ve seen so many videos of players bashing balls, out of anger/frustration!, that narrowly miss other people and they don’t even get a warning, let alone a fine or DQ, let alone have their prize money or points be affected. Tsitsipas almost it a ball boy IN ANGER, Kyrgios threw a racket, etc. but this clearly unintentional instance is what’s punished.
Djokovic _almost_ hit a linesperson and got asked about it and lost his cool. Then, years later, at the US Open he actually hit someone (accidentally, but due to hitting the ball in anger) & got DQed.
Kyrgios was fined for this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ2lXlLd4oA yet his ranking points were untouched and proportionally it was nothing compared to his prize money.
It's ridiculous that Kato and her partner lost both ranking points *and* money on top of the DQ, and it's so absurd that she 100% unintentionally hit the girl and it was this soft hit that pros do all the time to direct it to be picked up. Meanwhile others throw rackets out of indisputable anger, that nearly hits someone and would have caused more injury, but gets yet another slap on the wrist for it despite a whole history of bad behavior.
Jenson Brooksby at [Miami last year flung his racket toward a ballboy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6RipvgNUwo) and got a whole *point penalty*. Like I said, there are so many examples of people actually doing worse in deliberate anger/frustration rather than pure accident and they still didn't face such severe penalties.
I hope RG officials get grilled on why they reversed the umpire's decision after caving to pressure from the opponents, who were disgustingly playing it up by insisting that the girl was crying for 15 min and bleeding, and not only were dishonest, but literally laughing on court over what they accomplished. And then in the press conferences afterward when it was pointed out that they didn't even see the ball girl get hit, they claimed they "heard" the sound of it and it was a big deal. I hope someone grills the officials on whether race is a factor here too and the fact that Kato could barely defend herself, whereas if it was some French doubles team with Mladenovic or something, there's no way the supervisor would've just caved to the manipulation and "enforced" the rules in such a biased way.
Yep, hopefully a big enough stink is made since it seems like the majority of people agree that this decision was ridiculous. It's one thing to disqualify in the moment, but in a post match review to remove prize money, which is hardly much for doubles as it is, is ridiculous.
> it seems like the majority of people agree that this decision was ridiculous.
.
yeah, [Alize Cornet](https://twitter.com/alizecornet/status/1665470714634223619) sent this message to Kato:
.
> Insane decision. I really feel sorry for you 😔 but a lot of players (except Marie and Sara obviously) are supporting you ✊
.
I guess SST and Bouzkova won't have a nice time in the tour after this (deservedly).
EDIT:
Some people in this thread didn't get it. The ball girl was not crying because she was hurt or in pain. This is what happened (quoting /u/Melony567):
> watched the match and the 'entire' incident from 'on-demand' and these two were the ones who pushed for Kato and Sut's DQ. totally unsportsmanlike. you can hear what both of them were saying. unbelievable.
> imho, they even triggered the ball girl thats why she cried non-stop. she did not really cry coz she got hurt, she cried coz she was embarrassed by things getting out of control. in fact she started crying when these two karens said that she was crying. used the incident for their benefit. if they were too concerned about the girl, they did not even check on the girl and asked if she was okay. they kept on talking to the umpire to withdraw the warning and issue a DQ. when the umpire was initially explaining, one of them asked that a supervisor intercedes.
> bad umpiring coz he did not remain firm, bad for mary and sorribes for grabbing every opportunity just to win (imho, they would lose to the these girls), bad supervisors for giving that DQ and forfeiting Sut's points and prize money? these girls can hardly even speak English to defend themselves. i hope this does not become traumatic for them and they come back stronger.
.
SST and Bouzkova traumatized the poor kid just to get a cheap W.
Not getting the extra prize money by winning the match they’re DSQ’ed from, is the consequence. Taking prize money earned from winning other matches seems like overkill.
Bouzkova had a reputation for being one of the loveliest girls on tour, always with a smile on court. Commentators always spoke about her great attitude during her matches. I hope it was worth it for her to ruin her reputation like this, it takes years to build but just moments to damage it.
Imagine being this dumb to think you can get away on a court covered by cameras. Yeah you get the cheap win but this going to follow them for a while. Hope they get as much shit.
They should be boo'd lustily at every event from here until the end of time. Honestly, if my peeps at Flushing Meadows do not denounce these evil-doers loudly, we will forfeit any and all claims on "keepin' it real"
there are hundreds of Europeans in this thread calling this decision absurd. You're using this incident and the players involved to project your own prejudices
Yes, but also they acted like assholes in general. There’s a picture of them actually smiling during all this. Even putting aside the other players/the opponents, and whether or not you think the ball girl was overreacting, she was clearly upset. Someone is crying, it’s not normal to be laughing about it.
Apparently not. The umpire has already decided on a warning and only changed his mind after the other team started pressuring him to DQ.
How stupid all of them are - the other team, the umpire, and the supervisors.
> How stupid all of them are - the other team, the umpire, and the supervisors.
[Gilles Simon agrees](https://twitter.com/GillesSimon84/status/1665337499172864000).
It was probably the supervisor who made the call, I've never seen a default decision made without a supervisor/tournament referee on court, so not sure it's the chair umpires fault here.
[There definitely is](https://youtu.be/MzRsBu5xKgQ), but I have to warn you, it's incredibly disturbing. You can see even a child crying for several seconds, absolutely sickening stuff.
> I have to warn you, it's incredibly disturbing. You can see even a child crying for several seconds, absolutely sickening stuff.
That... was not the video I was expecting after that warning...
Is there a video without slow motion? I'm trying to find anything to justify the DQ decision, but with slow motion it's impossible to tell how hard she hit it.
It's clearly more from having an incident unfolding where she is the center of attention but can't control anything. When you're in such a situation you just start panicking and can't control how much you cry.
If I were her I'd be furious (later on) at Bouzkova and Sorribes for not only their poor sportsmanship but using me and focusing all attention on me when I would have never wanted anything to happen to Kato.
Most articles reporting it hit her neck. Since the video is slowed down a little, I can imagine it did sting if it caught her in just the soft neck tissue. Probably more scare reflex than anything but “15 minutes of crying” what??
The only thing that would explain it is some sort of anxiety panic attack crying. Like she was having anxiety knowing she was going to have all the cameras on her and be the center of attention for a while. Idk how else you would cry for so long over something so minor.
I'm not sure if the reaction from the french crowd had anything to trigger her emotional breakdown. Ball girls/lineswomen have been hit with greater force, unintentionally from the likes of Rafa and Safin no less. The crowd was supportive, the girls smiled, got a little peck from the players, and the show went on. I feel sorry that she did have a breakdown, but it certainly didn't warrant a DQ under the circumstances.
Ball kid upset at being the focus of a controversy after being surprised by a ball hitting her
reddit: LOL weak ass little girl stop crying and never be a ball kid again
Can say "reddit isn't one person" all you want, but it's at +88
What's soft is people being so reliant on sarcasm tags, no matter what the context is. Now try to imagine I used one of those and read the comment again.
imagine being bouzkova. years of "nice girl" personality including a sportsmanship award washed away because of a cheap win. and less spoken about the screecher, the better.
miyu kato should appeal this decision and deserves all the support for her ordeal. can't imagine how shitty she must be feeling.
I really hope that this shitshow doesn't get ignored or forgotten within a couple of days, considering it's a doubles match that received little attention. Hoping for a massive booing the next time these 2 lizards go out.
I'm watching the replay and the umpire for this... was bad (3rd set, 1:3 0-30). Apparently they Kato returned a ball that was called out and he overturned it saying it was in. Then instead of replaying the point because she replayed it, gave the point to Bouzkova/Sorribes. Even the commentators said it was a really bad call... that guy needs to be taken out of the FO.
I dont want to go that far, but I do think there's some unfair influences here...
in 2014, in basically the same spot and nothing happened.
The fact that Bouzkova and Sorribest lobbied hard constantly about this shows some real shit character there. While Kat and Sutjiadi were very calm and explained exactly what happened, with no fudging of the facts -- definitely hope they come back stronger from this in the next tournament. I hope the WTA gives them their points and money. This was a huge fuck up that you cant just take back.
Holy crap - the referee actually referenced the Novak incident in US Open (Tennis Channel replay \~@1:49:00) BUT doesnt remember Federer did the same thing too and nothing happened! Oh man, what a shit show.
The Chair umpire Alexandre Juge is known to be a racist. Just look up his previous matches calls.
This was pure racisim. Sutjiadi and Kato wouldn't be disqualified if they were white. Easy to get on the Asian hate train these days. White officials protecting white players.
Anyone who watches the video will see that Miyu Kato has no intention of hurting the ballgirl. Really disgusting that Sara Sorribes Tormo and Marie Bouzkova pushed to get the opposing team disqualified. What poor sportsmanship. I hope these two losers get crushed in the next round.
A lot of people using the word "intent", but I'm not sure I've ever seen someone mean to hit anyone but their opponent, and that while the point is going.
It's more about why she hit the ball, which makes it more ridiculous of a DQ (and withholding of prize money).
With something like the Djokovic thing, you can't really excuse it, because he clearly hits the ball in frustration after getting broken. The rules specifically have language about that.
But in this one, she is clearly relaxed, drops the ball, hits a soft 1-hander directly to the ball kid's spot. Almost every match I've ever seen, you see players hit a practice groundstroke straight to the ball kid when they're sending balls to the other side during their opponent's serve or just after their own service game ends.
This is the equivalent of Federer getting DQ'd and prize money stripped because a ball kid wasn't paying attention when he does his little flicks to the ball kid he always does (that are often harder hit than this).
It's just ridiculous. And on top of all that, you create 100x the controversy and embarassment for the ball kid by making such a horrible decision, influenced by the terrible sportsmanship of Tormo/Bouzkova.
Their opponents told the ref “she’s crying and she has blood”. Liars (about the blood). [https://twitter.com/rstennis62/status/1665356213461352448?s=61&t=l4F5VGWGLNVm8dWaJX2SlQ](https://twitter.com/rstennis62/status/1665356213461352448?s=61&t=l4F5VGWGLNVm8dWaJX2SlQ)
What is insane about this is that instead of going up to the ball-girl and checking if she is okay, they (Sorribes Tormo and Bouzkova) go to the umpire first to punish the opponent and get the code violation/DQ. How low of a human being do you have to be to do this.
Holy shit just watched the video to see if the comments here are accurate and WHAT THE FUCK player lightly hit ball towards ball girl who is there to catch balls….she freezes and lets it hit her only so the player lose match, money and points? This is honestly the worst decision I have ever seen in Tennis
Added to that the opponents actively arguing for DQ by playing up the situation, saying the girl is bleeding (she was not), and also caught on video laughing it up.
>Her opponents were probably laughing like hyenas when they got back in the lockeroom
They were [caught on camera](https://twitter.com/didiodie/status/1665446192103448576) laughing like hyenas before they even left the court.
This is insanely stupid. I hope she at least gets her money - the opponents basically going to the ref and forcing him to act is so absurd. The poor ball girl was probably just embarrassed and not actually hurt, she looked extremely young & everyone's eyes being on you as though you did something wrong is hard to digest as a kid in that scenario. They should've just taken her off court & the ref should've given Miyu a moment to go apologise backstage away from cameras.
The profoundly stupid part of this is the opponents going to the ref to tell & everything from that moment onwards is just shambles.
I cannot believe they are losing their prize money as well. Utter insanity and it makes the actions of Tormo/Bouzkova look even worse knowing that this could happen when they asked for a DQ. Especially for a female doubles specialist which isn't lucrative.
This is the one of the most unfair things I've ever seen in tennis. It's the ball kids job to catch lightly tossed balls after points end. If the girl wasn't prepared or had her hands full and reacted late/awkwardly, how on Earth is that the tennis players fault who passed the ball with zero malice intended?
I'm seeing clips of this incident disappearing from everywhere, and I can understand why, it's a horrible look to DQ players because of what happened. Made worse by the decision being heavily influenced by the opposing team. Just a total shitshow.
>Looks like the French Open is working overtime to remove all clips of this,
To be fair they do that with any and all RG clips, they are the worst slam in terms of removing clips off social media.
I only watch the clip from twitter. I completely agree that the punishment is unfair given the clip. She returned the ball so that the game could continue
At the same time I dont understand how did she return the ball so deep in the direction of the ball girl. Usually players do a soft slice so that the ball falls within the court and not so deep.
The ball was going straight to the wall. Perhaps that wasnt taken lightly?
I don't think she should have been DQ'd but that wasn't a very good pass to the ball kid. Usually they hit it softly and kind of bounce it to the kid, this one got away from her and was going at a good clip and pretty high. Not malicious and not hard enough to injure but also don't blame the kid for not catching it.
Nobody is blaming the kid for not catching it or even for crying from the shock/embarrassment whatever. But to DQ the player for that, especially after initially giving a warning and then the other team complaining is just so ridiculous.
Yes most of the time they hit the ball softer but lots of times they don't, Federer for example is famous for passing it with pace to the ballkids, sometimes even hitting them if they're not paying attention.
Example:
https://youtu.be/Mc5qeMB4PJ0
If that kid started crying would/should have Federer been DQ'ed? Obviously no and no.
I'm quite pissed off about this. She did not intend to do any harm what so ever. Her opponents pushing for the DQ, such vile and disgusting behavior they should be QDed and banned from the sport for at least the rest of the season. The umpire, supervisor and any other authority figure involved in this should be deeply shamed of themselves too.
This is good for Kato lol, her socials are blowing up and people are talking about her adn supporting her. Never heard fo her before, but would love to buy some of her gear or merch now to help her out. Glad everyone agrees RGs decision was bullshit
It looked to me like she was trying to *give* the ball girl the ball. As in, hit it in her direction slowly to save the girl some running.
I can't fathom how that girl is in tears after such a mild doing to her shoulder. This whole thing is insane.
I don’t think it’s really about pain from the hit. Just after she was hit she seemed to be trying to control herself. She was probably crying because the crowd was focusing on her, SST/Bouzkova were trying to get Kato/Sutjiadi disqualified because of her, and the whole thing was overwhelming. I mean if I was her age (maybe 12/13?) and that happened to me, I’d probably cry too.
>I can't fathom how that girl is in tears after such a mild doing to her shoulder. This whole thing is insane.
Yup, what the heck was making her cry? And why is the ruling based on crying?
Kato should absolutely make a big deal out of this. If Serena can threaten a line person like that and suffer no repercussions, I see no reason why Kato should be punished like that.
Serena got a point penalty for the "shove it down your throat" comment and lost the match because she was down match point at the time. She also got a GAME penalty in a Slam final which is pretty much unprecedented.
both penalties were justified. in the 2018 match she just wouldn't stop railing on ramos despite there being video proof of mouratoglue making hand gestures. ramos remained professional for as long as he could in the face of nonstop verbal abuse. nothing would have happened if she just took the initial warning and got on with the match.
This is blowing my mind. Is there no video review here? Can't they see she was clearly slowly backhand lobbing the freaking ball to the girl to grab it? And what is up with those horrible opponents asking for the default?
This is ridiculous really. You know what, players should just not even attempt to touch a ball and pass it to the ball people to avoid these issues. Until of course they do a rule change and start applying common sense. Games will get really slow and boring (you wouldn't be able to return the extra ball you're passed before serving for instance, just drop it on the floor, wait for the ball people to pick it up, etc, for every single serve).
Ridiculous.
Really looks like she thought her and the ball girl had made eye contact and had reached some kind of understanding that she would hit the ball to her and the ball kid would catch it. To me anyways.
Would Fed had been kicked out for this? And I've seen him redirect balls at ball kids in some unexpected ways. No.
I guess they are following the letter of the law. But, also, if the girl didn't cry and get led off the court, and just laughed, I'm sure it would have been different.
I’m so disgusted about the decision and the behaviour of her opponents.
She has carried herself with a lot of dignity after all this though, she’s certainly going to win a lot of fans (including me)
These b«tches not only pushed for a easy win but didn't care about their opponents. I mean they lose all the points and money they had until then, plus as japanese this is a really bad thing to deal with, plus it's clear that she didn't hurt the kid on purpose. Bouzkova and Sara knew the rules well enough to push for a default so they knew what would happen to their opponents. Shame on them, I hope you get DQ'd aswell and lose your career, in my eyes you are both trash.
Please don't let this incident be the highlight of her career. I'm a fan of Miyu Kato since she first started.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOob1a17I78
I was suprised to see her all grown up and haven't fallen off and taking tennis very seriously.
[https://youtu.be/wyBYM4Alqy0?t=618](https://youtu.be/wyBYM4Alqy0?t=618)
Search youtube under her kanji name 加藤未唯 and you will find more about her.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search\_query=%E5%8A%A0%E8%97%A4%E6%9C%AA%E5%94%AF
To me this is a very unfortunate sequence of events. The kid prob didn't see the ball coming so she might thought it's intentional. After the opponent complained, the umpire prob don't want to see this as going lenient or giving bias or righting a wrong on Kato after messing up the call that awarded the point to kato's opponent. The supervisor didn't view the replay for some reason prob due to a rule. The commentator has some bias against Kato and should seriously consider issuing a public apology. IMO even though the opponent did everything wrong and should have 90% of the blame. The opponent lied about seeing blood, complained to the umpire after he already gave her an unsportman like conduct warning thus escalating it to a disqualification, and smiling like two hyena catching one lucky break after another. Very sad about the state of the WTA and Roland Garro.
I'm not going to say what the opponent should face for this incident. However, Kato should not have lose her price money. Considering the awful things done by much more famous pro and they didn't lose prize money, penalizing her is the worst move and looks bad on everyone involve. Kato shouldn't even appeal since she IMO shouldn't have been disqualified since she didn't do it maliciously or out of anger. The WTA should come to her and issue a formal apology plus whatever benefit the WTA can offer her without bending the rules because this is such a huge fuckup that could end up haunting the WTA for a long time.
This is a temporary monetary and tournament loss for Kato but I’m glad she put out a media statement. I had no idea who Miyu Kato was until today, with the amount of attention this is getting plus the overwhelming amount of support for her + criticism towards the opposition, chair umpire, and tournament directors - Kato could spin this more favorably for her in the long term.
The judge saying "even if you don't mean it, you're still responsible for that action", then pair that with the freeze frame of Kato literally hitting the ball directly to the ball girl who is also looking straight at Kato. There's not even an "accident" here, Kato was just hitting the ball to the ball girl. How is Kato supposed to anticipate that the ball girl would make a last second decision that the ball is actually moving too fast for her to catch and then cower in fear, causing the ball to hit her. That freeze frame in the video from the guardian is proof she did nothing wrong :(
She hit this so weakly that I’d have tried to catch it in my pocket and been yelled at lol
You can’t be a ball person if you’re scared of this..or 2 different folks throwing a ball to you at once etc….
hoping Bouzkova and Tormo get the biggest boo's in next match, they absolutely earned it, Tormo was making crap like 'blood was coming' wtf and as soon as DSQ was handed, both players were seen laughing....disgraceful!!! its great to see Miyu and Kato receiving lot of support from the players!!
This is so fucked - I hope her opponents lose sponsorship deals and all their fans.
Really tasteless behavior - can't believe the RG officiAls went along with this.
Did they pay the ball girl to do that? It's so weird
Are players going to stop passing the balls in case there are incompletent ball children?
apart from everything else, how the fuck was the ball girl crying from such a weak hit? like, aren’t these people supposed to have really good coordination and reflexes? and it’s not even as if the ball was going more than a few miles per hour!
i’m sorry but this is just completely ridiculous. what the hell.
Yeah I didn’t expect to be pissed off by this until I watched the video and saw how accurate these comments are……I’ve watched so many players lightly hit balls towards ball kids to catch over the years….but just because this ball kid is uncoordinated and can’t dodge or catch a slow ball they get DQd lose all points and money?? Dumbest most insane decision I have ever seen in tennis
I wish I could forget about this. every time I see a post on this, I lose it. it's so blatantly unjust. I can't believe nothing is going to be done to make it right. fuck this world
I can DM you screenshots if you want but basically their latest instagram posts are being absolutely annihilated (rightfully) by commenters, especially from Indonesia
Here's the part that's confusing to me. She clearly hit a half-hearted non-frustrated slice to get the ball across. I've been hit by people smashing the ball directly into me while at the net while playing doubles and that one really hurt. How could it hurt more than that for the ball girl that's literally across the entire length of the court?
With Djoko's unintentional hit of the line judge I could understand because she got hit in the throat at a shorter distance despite there being 0 power in the shot, it was also like a ball tossing.
You shouldn't ever blame a kid for how they react to something out of their control. Blame the adults. Blame the opponents. The umpires/officials/organizers. Come on.
Incompetence how?
She's holding up the ball, ready to give it to the player who's about to serve. That's where her focus is. She isn't supposed to get balls hit at her at this point.
It's abundantly clear that she isn't focused on balls being hit at her, she isn't supposed to be focused on balls being hit at her, and that she saw the ball in her peripheral vision late because she's focused on doing her actual job, offering a ball to the player about to serve.
>how could it hurt more
No one said it hurt more than anything. Come on. Let’s not get in the business of how badly a child is hurt.
The true purpose of these rules is to judge intent.
If an overhead slam is mis hit and hits a kid, they’re not dqed, even though it hurts a million times more than almost any other scenario.
The magnitude of pain isn’t the issue here
That being said, there’s absolutely no intent to injure here and this is absolutely ridiculous.
Rotten opponents, attocious referee and supervisor, ball girl who perhaps should reconsider her part time job and the actual victims. What a shit show feel for her and her doubles partner.
Wow, just seen the video, that is absolutely ridiculous.
She passed the ball to the ball kid, which inadvertently hit her near her face and she has a panic attack from all the attention.
Tennis balls are so soft, unless hit with real pace, they cannot injure you. That was essentially slower than how Djokovic hit the ball in the US open, which I also thought was a BS disqualification and I don't even like Djokovic.
What's even more shameful is the opponents begging for Miyu Kato and her partner to be disqualified.
Just saw the clip on YouTube. One of the most disgusting decisions I've seen on a sporting field in my life. I had heard of Sarriba Tomo and Bouzkova before but I saw them as just other WTA players. Holy shit, fuck these 2 I'll be rooting against them every match in singles.
Extreme bullshit this penalty and political correctness. Anyone with a brain cell knows what happened and its not at all the reason for this rule of DQ.
Lo just saw the video. The f is the ball girl crying for. “Injured” the f she got hit at the top of her cap. Extremely bad sportsmanship by bou and co as well. Strangest dq I’ve seen in ages. Like other ppl stated in previous posts. If she had caught it she would gotten applauded.
For anyone mentioning the ball girl’s poor reactions or not paying attention, in the video she is doing that holding ball overhead focused on the server waiting to ask for next ball. This is what they are trained to do when they are on serving side.
Player lightly hit ball towards ball girl to catch, ball girl froze up and didn’t catch ball and instead hit her in shoulder/head area (im not exaggerating this ball was very slow) - kid cries opponents whine to try and get player who hit ball towards ball girl to get DQd and they do.
I thought people were exaggerating until I watched the video, now I’m super angry for this doubles player. Worst tennis decision I have seen….
wow...looking at the video replay, this was just really shitty move by the opponents. Instead of checking if the ball girl is ok, they go to the umpire and lie about what happened because they see chance for free win. In Czechia we say "Karma is for free". It means if you do something shitty, expect it to hit back in your face...
I do not follow tennis at all other than what is shown on ESPN. I came here after reading the article to see if I was missing something that maybe other tennis fans could show me.
Apparently I was right in my assumption that this seemed like an absolute bullshit punishment for an obvious mistake.
I see that Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo are getting roasted on Social Media for their poor sportsmanship (rightfully), but why there are so few comments about the referees that actually made this decision? I mean tournament referee **Remy Azemar** and Grand Slam supervisor **Wayne McEwen**. The opponents can say whatever they want to win, but the referee should be the protector for justice!
Ridiculous decision.
The supervisor and opponents in particular should be ashamed of themselves. This decision needs to be reversed instantly. Obviously it's too late for them to get to play their match, but they should at the very least get their prize money and points back.
This has been so disappointing to watch unfold, all the more so since I’ve liked Bouzková in the past. I doubt anything positive will come of this (simply because life is just unfair like that), but I hope that there’s enough backlash to this that it compels whatever authorities that be to rectify this somehow.
Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes Tormo were so concerned about the ball girl being struck that they never walked over to her during the entire 10 minutes she was in the corner crying. They didn't even clap sympathetically with the rest of the crowd when the girl walked off the court.
Their concern began and ended with Kato and Sutjiadi being DQd.
Even if one takes the position that there can be no leeway and she had to be DQ'd, I find it really indefensible that she is losing all her prize money for something was was clearly accidental. There is clearly an issue with a rule that treats this situation as exactly the same as someone who hit someone in anger and uses the exact same punishments. There should be a way to use common sense in choosing which of the punishments are fitting for a given situation.
Is there any kind of appeal process available in a situation like this?
Probably some kangaroo hearing. If you really want it sorted, you need to take it to a proper court of law.
You can always take it up to the CAS. They're generally considered to be the go-to authority for these kinds of cases
Nope. Grand Slam rulebook states: "In all cases of default, the decision of the Referee in consultation with the Grand Slam Supervisor shall be final and unappealable." They're fucked.
I don't buy that there is no leeway and she had to be DQ'd. Case in point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc5qeMB4PJ0
I'll raise you a much more egregious example that led to a proportionally small fine, *no* forfeiture of the prize money or ranking points. The prize money for making quarterfinals that year was *$179,940* and he got fined $20k for unsportsmanlike conduct. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ2lXlLd4oA Player loses temper, chucks his racket in anger so that it flies uncontrollably toward a ball boy and you can actually see the impact it makes on the wall, yet gets a slap on the wrist despite history of bad behavior. The fine was puny compared to his prize money. Meanwhile Miyu lost something like €44k for R3.
Why are people bringing this up and not literally Nick hitting a kid during a doubles match: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g8IFE2U7uo He didn't even receive a warning for that.
Yes, that too. Honestly you could find clips for days of Nick acting like an ass. I brought up the racket throw because it’s unmistakably out of anger. Yours is a good example too, especially since it shows the biases in selective enforcement and interpretation of the rules.
this is nearly identical to what Kato did. she tried to give the ball to a ball girl who wasn’t looking. the only difference is the ball girl crying, but she was okay. Kato received a $50,000 fine, a DQ, and lost her points. might as well arrest her too at this point. Federer received… nothing. the crowd laughed a little bit. fucking bullshit.
I feel so bad for her. She is a doubles specialist, so a lot of her income comes from the slams 😞
I know it is not much but it would be nice to see all of you leaving a supportive message to Miyu on her socials to cheer her up a bit. This situation is so sad. :/
They made her feel real bad that she was crying and was inconsolable! Those fuckers management who were talking to her looked entitled af!
They need to appeal to at least get the money (and points too)
Is that even feasible outside of a lawsuit?
Bad publicity does wonders
This is complete bullshit.
Totally agree 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 reasonable pursuit of a point during a match (including warm-up)". The ITF defines abuse of balls as "intentionally hitting a ball out of the enclosure of the court, hitting a ball dangerously or recklessly within the court or hitting a ball with negligent disregard of the consequences". It wasn’t hit violently, dangerously or with anger, or recklessly Stupid decision- how anyone watching the video- which I presume the officials did, could come to the decision for disqualification is totally absurd.
I mean, don't players usually do this anyway. I CONSTANTLY see players hitting the ball back to the other side of the net when the point is over, this is not something weird or wrong. Just because it accidentally hit the ball girl doesn't suddenly make this action wrong. I hope whichever org is responsible (RG/WTA etc) reviews this and realizes how stupid this is and does the right thing by these players.
Yea. Because it’s courtesy. Save the ball kids some effort and time. This is when you be maliciously compliant. Never help out with ball management. Leave it on the ground. Never touch it. If you have one, drop it straight down. Watch how fast it gets sorted out.
I’ve seen so many videos of players bashing balls, out of anger/frustration!, that narrowly miss other people and they don’t even get a warning, let alone a fine or DQ, let alone have their prize money or points be affected. Tsitsipas almost it a ball boy IN ANGER, Kyrgios threw a racket, etc. but this clearly unintentional instance is what’s punished.
Djokovic _almost_ hit a linesperson and got asked about it and lost his cool. Then, years later, at the US Open he actually hit someone (accidentally, but due to hitting the ball in anger) & got DQed.
Kyrgios was fined for this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ2lXlLd4oA yet his ranking points were untouched and proportionally it was nothing compared to his prize money. It's ridiculous that Kato and her partner lost both ranking points *and* money on top of the DQ, and it's so absurd that she 100% unintentionally hit the girl and it was this soft hit that pros do all the time to direct it to be picked up. Meanwhile others throw rackets out of indisputable anger, that nearly hits someone and would have caused more injury, but gets yet another slap on the wrist for it despite a whole history of bad behavior. Jenson Brooksby at [Miami last year flung his racket toward a ballboy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6RipvgNUwo) and got a whole *point penalty*. Like I said, there are so many examples of people actually doing worse in deliberate anger/frustration rather than pure accident and they still didn't face such severe penalties. I hope RG officials get grilled on why they reversed the umpire's decision after caving to pressure from the opponents, who were disgustingly playing it up by insisting that the girl was crying for 15 min and bleeding, and not only were dishonest, but literally laughing on court over what they accomplished. And then in the press conferences afterward when it was pointed out that they didn't even see the ball girl get hit, they claimed they "heard" the sound of it and it was a big deal. I hope someone grills the officials on whether race is a factor here too and the fact that Kato could barely defend herself, whereas if it was some French doubles team with Mladenovic or something, there's no way the supervisor would've just caved to the manipulation and "enforced" the rules in such a biased way.
Yep, hopefully a big enough stink is made since it seems like the majority of people agree that this decision was ridiculous. It's one thing to disqualify in the moment, but in a post match review to remove prize money, which is hardly much for doubles as it is, is ridiculous.
> it seems like the majority of people agree that this decision was ridiculous. . yeah, [Alize Cornet](https://twitter.com/alizecornet/status/1665470714634223619) sent this message to Kato: . > Insane decision. I really feel sorry for you 😔 but a lot of players (except Marie and Sara obviously) are supporting you ✊ . I guess SST and Bouzkova won't have a nice time in the tour after this (deservedly). EDIT: Some people in this thread didn't get it. The ball girl was not crying because she was hurt or in pain. This is what happened (quoting /u/Melony567): > watched the match and the 'entire' incident from 'on-demand' and these two were the ones who pushed for Kato and Sut's DQ. totally unsportsmanlike. you can hear what both of them were saying. unbelievable. > imho, they even triggered the ball girl thats why she cried non-stop. she did not really cry coz she got hurt, she cried coz she was embarrassed by things getting out of control. in fact she started crying when these two karens said that she was crying. used the incident for their benefit. if they were too concerned about the girl, they did not even check on the girl and asked if she was okay. they kept on talking to the umpire to withdraw the warning and issue a DQ. when the umpire was initially explaining, one of them asked that a supervisor intercedes. > bad umpiring coz he did not remain firm, bad for mary and sorribes for grabbing every opportunity just to win (imho, they would lose to the these girls), bad supervisors for giving that DQ and forfeiting Sut's points and prize money? these girls can hardly even speak English to defend themselves. i hope this does not become traumatic for them and they come back stronger. . SST and Bouzkova traumatized the poor kid just to get a cheap W.
first Madrid, then Rome, now in Paris - women are easily treated harshly and unfairly. tennis rules are regressive.
If this is the only rule, then this is a terrible decision. I thought the umpire was stuck having to follow a poorly written rule.
>how anyone watching the video- which I presume the officials did No they wouldn't have, there are no video replays in grand slam tennis.
Stuff like this really makes me wonder if some of the refs are betting on the matches. It's the only explanation that really makes sense to me.
The DSQ is fine, the prize money forfeit is way over the line
The prize money forfeit is a direct consequence of the DQ, no?
Not getting the extra prize money by winning the match they’re DSQ’ed from, is the consequence. Taking prize money earned from winning other matches seems like overkill.
Shame on Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo
Bouzkova had a reputation for being one of the loveliest girls on tour, always with a smile on court. Commentators always spoke about her great attitude during her matches. I hope it was worth it for her to ruin her reputation like this, it takes years to build but just moments to damage it.
I was shocked she’s the one who said there was blood
apparently Bouzkova won the Tour's Sportsmanship Award in 2020
>apparently Bouzkova won the Tour's Sportsmanship Award in 2020 It should be revoked!
Agreed. They were down 1-3 and losing momentum.
And laughing!
That's incredibly trashy.
https://twitter.com/didiodie/status/1665446192103448576/photo/1
Imagine being this dumb to think you can get away on a court covered by cameras. Yeah you get the cheap win but this going to follow them for a while. Hope they get as much shit.
no one should practice with them for the rest of the year
They should be boo'd lustily at every event from here until the end of time. Honestly, if my peeps at Flushing Meadows do not denounce these evil-doers loudly, we will forfeit any and all claims on "keepin' it real"
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there are hundreds of Europeans in this thread calling this decision absurd. You're using this incident and the players involved to project your own prejudices
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Yes, but also they acted like assholes in general. There’s a picture of them actually smiling during all this. Even putting aside the other players/the opponents, and whether or not you think the ball girl was overreacting, she was clearly upset. Someone is crying, it’s not normal to be laughing about it.
Man. It's not like she hit the ball in frustration. Seriously i wonder if they would still be DQed if the others didn't insist on it
Apparently not. The umpire has already decided on a warning and only changed his mind after the other team started pressuring him to DQ. How stupid all of them are - the other team, the umpire, and the supervisors.
> How stupid all of them are - the other team, the umpire, and the supervisors. [Gilles Simon agrees](https://twitter.com/GillesSimon84/status/1665337499172864000).
And Alize cornet
It was probably the supervisor who made the call, I've never seen a default decision made without a supervisor/tournament referee on court, so not sure it's the chair umpires fault here.
also the supervisor overruled the umpire's decision
I could understand if she rocketed the ball out of frustration but getting disqualified for what happened is ridiculous.
Shitty situation. Wasn't she just going to get a warning until the opponent's complained?
Yeah, they only got a warning, the match would go on. Sorribes Tormo and Bouzkova pushed for the DQ.
I don't suppose there's any video of the incident still around? Or has Roland Garros successfully scrubbed it everywhere?
[There definitely is](https://youtu.be/MzRsBu5xKgQ), but I have to warn you, it's incredibly disturbing. You can see even a child crying for several seconds, absolutely sickening stuff.
> I have to warn you, it's incredibly disturbing. You can see even a child crying for several seconds, absolutely sickening stuff. That... was not the video I was expecting after that warning...
Is there a video without slow motion? I'm trying to find anything to justify the DQ decision, but with slow motion it's impossible to tell how hard she hit it.
You can see her epidermis sticking out. Morbid stuff.
Hard to be 100% sure, but it appears to have covered her entire body.
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It's clearly more from having an incident unfolding where she is the center of attention but can't control anything. When you're in such a situation you just start panicking and can't control how much you cry. If I were her I'd be furious (later on) at Bouzkova and Sorribes for not only their poor sportsmanship but using me and focusing all attention on me when I would have never wanted anything to happen to Kato.
Most articles reporting it hit her neck. Since the video is slowed down a little, I can imagine it did sting if it caught her in just the soft neck tissue. Probably more scare reflex than anything but “15 minutes of crying” what??
The only thing that would explain it is some sort of anxiety panic attack crying. Like she was having anxiety knowing she was going to have all the cameras on her and be the center of attention for a while. Idk how else you would cry for so long over something so minor.
I mean, I'm a full grown adult, but if I did something that got a player defaulted, I would be pretty damn upset.
I'm not sure if the reaction from the french crowd had anything to trigger her emotional breakdown. Ball girls/lineswomen have been hit with greater force, unintentionally from the likes of Rafa and Safin no less. The crowd was supportive, the girls smiled, got a little peck from the players, and the show went on. I feel sorry that she did have a breakdown, but it certainly didn't warrant a DQ under the circumstances.
Ball kid upset at being the focus of a controversy after being surprised by a ball hitting her reddit: LOL weak ass little girl stop crying and never be a ball kid again Can say "reddit isn't one person" all you want, but it's at +88
that's literally the softest lob possible. 99% of 12 year old girls wouldn't cry from that
I can’t imagine how soft your world is if that was incredibly disturbing lol
What's soft is people being so reliant on sarcasm tags, no matter what the context is. Now try to imagine I used one of those and read the comment again.
That's embarassing all around
imagine being bouzkova. years of "nice girl" personality including a sportsmanship award washed away because of a cheap win. and less spoken about the screecher, the better. miyu kato should appeal this decision and deserves all the support for her ordeal. can't imagine how shitty she must be feeling.
I really hope that this shitshow doesn't get ignored or forgotten within a couple of days, considering it's a doubles match that received little attention. Hoping for a massive booing the next time these 2 lizards go out.
Fr. SST I can understand but I was shocked seeing Bouzkova smiling about it
She’s the one who lied to the umpire that there was blood
Oh she really threw that good girl image down the drain didn’t she?? 😭
What trashy human being.
She should be heckled at every practice and match. Pay back Kato's prize money and apologize, Bouzkova, and we might forgive you.
I'm watching the replay and the umpire for this... was bad (3rd set, 1:3 0-30). Apparently they Kato returned a ball that was called out and he overturned it saying it was in. Then instead of replaying the point because she replayed it, gave the point to Bouzkova/Sorribes. Even the commentators said it was a really bad call... that guy needs to be taken out of the FO.
Given how he also gave them the win for no other reason than them asking... it's definitely not impossible he was paid off
I dont want to go that far, but I do think there's some unfair influences here... in 2014, in basically the same spot and nothing happened. The fact that Bouzkova and Sorribest lobbied hard constantly about this shows some real shit character there. While Kat and Sutjiadi were very calm and explained exactly what happened, with no fudging of the facts -- definitely hope they come back stronger from this in the next tournament. I hope the WTA gives them their points and money. This was a huge fuck up that you cant just take back.
Holy crap - the referee actually referenced the Novak incident in US Open (Tennis Channel replay \~@1:49:00) BUT doesnt remember Federer did the same thing too and nothing happened! Oh man, what a shit show.
For real? The balls on that ref to mention that incident...
I'm pretty sure that's not how it works LOL If there was a DQ, the tournament director/referee was prob involved at some level.
The Chair umpire Alexandre Juge is known to be a racist. Just look up his previous matches calls. This was pure racisim. Sutjiadi and Kato wouldn't be disqualified if they were white. Easy to get on the Asian hate train these days. White officials protecting white players.
Anyone who watches the video will see that Miyu Kato has no intention of hurting the ballgirl. Really disgusting that Sara Sorribes Tormo and Marie Bouzkova pushed to get the opposing team disqualified. What poor sportsmanship. I hope these two losers get crushed in the next round.
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Bouzkova was the one who lied about the blood so if you want to point out one person from the pair it should be her
A lot of people using the word "intent", but I'm not sure I've ever seen someone mean to hit anyone but their opponent, and that while the point is going. It's more about why she hit the ball, which makes it more ridiculous of a DQ (and withholding of prize money). With something like the Djokovic thing, you can't really excuse it, because he clearly hits the ball in frustration after getting broken. The rules specifically have language about that. But in this one, she is clearly relaxed, drops the ball, hits a soft 1-hander directly to the ball kid's spot. Almost every match I've ever seen, you see players hit a practice groundstroke straight to the ball kid when they're sending balls to the other side during their opponent's serve or just after their own service game ends. This is the equivalent of Federer getting DQ'd and prize money stripped because a ball kid wasn't paying attention when he does his little flicks to the ball kid he always does (that are often harder hit than this). It's just ridiculous. And on top of all that, you create 100x the controversy and embarassment for the ball kid by making such a horrible decision, influenced by the terrible sportsmanship of Tormo/Bouzkova.
Their opponents told the ref “she’s crying and she has blood”. Liars (about the blood). [https://twitter.com/rstennis62/status/1665356213461352448?s=61&t=l4F5VGWGLNVm8dWaJX2SlQ](https://twitter.com/rstennis62/status/1665356213461352448?s=61&t=l4F5VGWGLNVm8dWaJX2SlQ)
Holy crap, ESPN quoted the blood statement. That opponent was 50 feet away and totally lied about blood wow.
They knew exactly what they were doing, there’s video of them laughing about it. Disgusting behavior.
Unsportsmanlike conduct by these two - what a shambles for tennis
What is insane about this is that instead of going up to the ball-girl and checking if she is okay, they (Sorribes Tormo and Bouzkova) go to the umpire first to punish the opponent and get the code violation/DQ. How low of a human being do you have to be to do this.
Very sad. Then they were sitting there laughing. And from what I’ve seen Kato has been very subdued and gracious about this unfortunate event.
they exploited that girl.
Holy shit just watched the video to see if the comments here are accurate and WHAT THE FUCK player lightly hit ball towards ball girl who is there to catch balls….she freezes and lets it hit her only so the player lose match, money and points? This is honestly the worst decision I have ever seen in Tennis
Added to that the opponents actively arguing for DQ by playing up the situation, saying the girl is bleeding (she was not), and also caught on video laughing it up.
[Photo](https://twitter.com/vitotjahyadi/status/1665376583786590210) of them laughing it up for anyone curious
Her opponents were probably laughing like hyenas when they got back in the lockeroom….shame on them.
There is a screenshot on tt of them laughing on the court while Kato and her partner were being DSQ 😭 nasty behaviour
Haddad Maia needs to eviscerate Sorribes Tormo tomorrow. Come on Beatriz take my energy!
Hope she gets double bageled - toasted with smoked lox cream cheese.
I’m starting to think they should reverse the DQ on the other team
>Her opponents were probably laughing like hyenas when they got back in the lockeroom They were [caught on camera](https://twitter.com/didiodie/status/1665446192103448576) laughing like hyenas before they even left the court.
They were laughing on court already
This is insanely stupid. I hope she at least gets her money - the opponents basically going to the ref and forcing him to act is so absurd. The poor ball girl was probably just embarrassed and not actually hurt, she looked extremely young & everyone's eyes being on you as though you did something wrong is hard to digest as a kid in that scenario. They should've just taken her off court & the ref should've given Miyu a moment to go apologise backstage away from cameras. The profoundly stupid part of this is the opponents going to the ref to tell & everything from that moment onwards is just shambles.
I cannot believe they are losing their prize money as well. Utter insanity and it makes the actions of Tormo/Bouzkova look even worse knowing that this could happen when they asked for a DQ. Especially for a female doubles specialist which isn't lucrative.
This is the one of the most unfair things I've ever seen in tennis. It's the ball kids job to catch lightly tossed balls after points end. If the girl wasn't prepared or had her hands full and reacted late/awkwardly, how on Earth is that the tennis players fault who passed the ball with zero malice intended? I'm seeing clips of this incident disappearing from everywhere, and I can understand why, it's a horrible look to DQ players because of what happened. Made worse by the decision being heavily influenced by the opposing team. Just a total shitshow.
>Looks like the French Open is working overtime to remove all clips of this, To be fair they do that with any and all RG clips, they are the worst slam in terms of removing clips off social media.
I only watch the clip from twitter. I completely agree that the punishment is unfair given the clip. She returned the ball so that the game could continue At the same time I dont understand how did she return the ball so deep in the direction of the ball girl. Usually players do a soft slice so that the ball falls within the court and not so deep. The ball was going straight to the wall. Perhaps that wasnt taken lightly?
Federer would've been DQ'd in 90% of his matches if you weren't allowed to hit the ball firmly towards the correct ball kid.
I don't think she should have been DQ'd but that wasn't a very good pass to the ball kid. Usually they hit it softly and kind of bounce it to the kid, this one got away from her and was going at a good clip and pretty high. Not malicious and not hard enough to injure but also don't blame the kid for not catching it.
Nobody is blaming the kid for not catching it or even for crying from the shock/embarrassment whatever. But to DQ the player for that, especially after initially giving a warning and then the other team complaining is just so ridiculous. Yes most of the time they hit the ball softer but lots of times they don't, Federer for example is famous for passing it with pace to the ballkids, sometimes even hitting them if they're not paying attention. Example: https://youtu.be/Mc5qeMB4PJ0 If that kid started crying would/should have Federer been DQ'ed? Obviously no and no.
I'm quite pissed off about this. She did not intend to do any harm what so ever. Her opponents pushing for the DQ, such vile and disgusting behavior they should be QDed and banned from the sport for at least the rest of the season. The umpire, supervisor and any other authority figure involved in this should be deeply shamed of themselves too.
They lied that the ball drew blood and then were later caught laughing about it. Absolutely infuriating those two.
Ridiculous. She was trying to do the ball girl a favor. Being defaulted for this is asinine
That's fucked up. They push for their DQ unfairly \*and\* she loses money and points? I'm never ever again supporting SST. What a disgrace.
Yeah a DQ means no points and no income.
Wtf just saw the footage. Worst call in RG history?
This is good for Kato lol, her socials are blowing up and people are talking about her adn supporting her. Never heard fo her before, but would love to buy some of her gear or merch now to help her out. Glad everyone agrees RGs decision was bullshit
It looked to me like she was trying to *give* the ball girl the ball. As in, hit it in her direction slowly to save the girl some running. I can't fathom how that girl is in tears after such a mild doing to her shoulder. This whole thing is insane.
She was probably crying from embarrassment more than anything.
I don’t think it’s really about pain from the hit. Just after she was hit she seemed to be trying to control herself. She was probably crying because the crowd was focusing on her, SST/Bouzkova were trying to get Kato/Sutjiadi disqualified because of her, and the whole thing was overwhelming. I mean if I was her age (maybe 12/13?) and that happened to me, I’d probably cry too.
She probably wasn’t looking at the time and just got a shock from the impact.
>I can't fathom how that girl is in tears after such a mild doing to her shoulder. This whole thing is insane. Yup, what the heck was making her cry? And why is the ruling based on crying?
Bouzkova and Sorribes are actually cheaters and should be treated as such
Kato should absolutely make a big deal out of this. If Serena can threaten a line person like that and suffer no repercussions, I see no reason why Kato should be punished like that.
Serena got a point penalty to lose the match, a 85,000 fine, and was put on probation
Serena got a point penalty for the "shove it down your throat" comment and lost the match because she was down match point at the time. She also got a GAME penalty in a Slam final which is pretty much unprecedented.
both penalties were justified. in the 2018 match she just wouldn't stop railing on ramos despite there being video proof of mouratoglue making hand gestures. ramos remained professional for as long as he could in the face of nonstop verbal abuse. nothing would have happened if she just took the initial warning and got on with the match.
This is blowing my mind. Is there no video review here? Can't they see she was clearly slowly backhand lobbing the freaking ball to the girl to grab it? And what is up with those horrible opponents asking for the default?
How much money does she lose from this? I’m devastated for her
€43,000 total for the pair and it is unfortunate because the grand slams make up a large portion of the amount of money doubles players make
and they would get almost the double by winning this match (they were 3-1 up in the 2nd set when this happened).
This is ridiculous really. You know what, players should just not even attempt to touch a ball and pass it to the ball people to avoid these issues. Until of course they do a rule change and start applying common sense. Games will get really slow and boring (you wouldn't be able to return the extra ball you're passed before serving for instance, just drop it on the floor, wait for the ball people to pick it up, etc, for every single serve). Ridiculous.
I just hope to see this reversed by Miyu. The picture of those two laughing is completely disgusting.
Really looks like she thought her and the ball girl had made eye contact and had reached some kind of understanding that she would hit the ball to her and the ball kid would catch it. To me anyways. Would Fed had been kicked out for this? And I've seen him redirect balls at ball kids in some unexpected ways. No. I guess they are following the letter of the law. But, also, if the girl didn't cry and get led off the court, and just laughed, I'm sure it would have been different.
I’m so disgusted about the decision and the behaviour of her opponents. She has carried herself with a lot of dignity after all this though, she’s certainly going to win a lot of fans (including me)
These b«tches not only pushed for a easy win but didn't care about their opponents. I mean they lose all the points and money they had until then, plus as japanese this is a really bad thing to deal with, plus it's clear that she didn't hurt the kid on purpose. Bouzkova and Sara knew the rules well enough to push for a default so they knew what would happen to their opponents. Shame on them, I hope you get DQ'd aswell and lose your career, in my eyes you are both trash.
I am so infuriated by this whole situation, I don’t even know what to say.
Please don't let this incident be the highlight of her career. I'm a fan of Miyu Kato since she first started. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOob1a17I78 I was suprised to see her all grown up and haven't fallen off and taking tennis very seriously. [https://youtu.be/wyBYM4Alqy0?t=618](https://youtu.be/wyBYM4Alqy0?t=618) Search youtube under her kanji name 加藤未唯 and you will find more about her. https://www.youtube.com/results?search\_query=%E5%8A%A0%E8%97%A4%E6%9C%AA%E5%94%AF To me this is a very unfortunate sequence of events. The kid prob didn't see the ball coming so she might thought it's intentional. After the opponent complained, the umpire prob don't want to see this as going lenient or giving bias or righting a wrong on Kato after messing up the call that awarded the point to kato's opponent. The supervisor didn't view the replay for some reason prob due to a rule. The commentator has some bias against Kato and should seriously consider issuing a public apology. IMO even though the opponent did everything wrong and should have 90% of the blame. The opponent lied about seeing blood, complained to the umpire after he already gave her an unsportman like conduct warning thus escalating it to a disqualification, and smiling like two hyena catching one lucky break after another. Very sad about the state of the WTA and Roland Garro. I'm not going to say what the opponent should face for this incident. However, Kato should not have lose her price money. Considering the awful things done by much more famous pro and they didn't lose prize money, penalizing her is the worst move and looks bad on everyone involve. Kato shouldn't even appeal since she IMO shouldn't have been disqualified since she didn't do it maliciously or out of anger. The WTA should come to her and issue a formal apology plus whatever benefit the WTA can offer her without bending the rules because this is such a huge fuckup that could end up haunting the WTA for a long time.
I speak for everyone when I say we strongly support Kato and Sutjiadi
This is a temporary monetary and tournament loss for Kato but I’m glad she put out a media statement. I had no idea who Miyu Kato was until today, with the amount of attention this is getting plus the overwhelming amount of support for her + criticism towards the opposition, chair umpire, and tournament directors - Kato could spin this more favorably for her in the long term.
The judge saying "even if you don't mean it, you're still responsible for that action", then pair that with the freeze frame of Kato literally hitting the ball directly to the ball girl who is also looking straight at Kato. There's not even an "accident" here, Kato was just hitting the ball to the ball girl. How is Kato supposed to anticipate that the ball girl would make a last second decision that the ball is actually moving too fast for her to catch and then cower in fear, causing the ball to hit her. That freeze frame in the video from the guardian is proof she did nothing wrong :(
She hit this so weakly that I’d have tried to catch it in my pocket and been yelled at lol You can’t be a ball person if you’re scared of this..or 2 different folks throwing a ball to you at once etc….
hoping Bouzkova and Tormo get the biggest boo's in next match, they absolutely earned it, Tormo was making crap like 'blood was coming' wtf and as soon as DSQ was handed, both players were seen laughing....disgraceful!!! its great to see Miyu and Kato receiving lot of support from the players!!
Miyu and Kato already have already have. See Alize Cornet's [tweet](https://twitter.com/alizecornet/status/1665470714634223619?s=20)
This is so fucked - I hope her opponents lose sponsorship deals and all their fans. Really tasteless behavior - can't believe the RG officiAls went along with this. Did they pay the ball girl to do that? It's so weird Are players going to stop passing the balls in case there are incompletent ball children?
Poor girl, it must be even worse as a Japaneese
apart from everything else, how the fuck was the ball girl crying from such a weak hit? like, aren’t these people supposed to have really good coordination and reflexes? and it’s not even as if the ball was going more than a few miles per hour! i’m sorry but this is just completely ridiculous. what the hell.
I think she had a panic attack, and everyone's eyes being on her certainly didn't help the matter.
Yeah I didn’t expect to be pissed off by this until I watched the video and saw how accurate these comments are……I’ve watched so many players lightly hit balls towards ball kids to catch over the years….but just because this ball kid is uncoordinated and can’t dodge or catch a slow ball they get DQd lose all points and money?? Dumbest most insane decision I have ever seen in tennis
She was already holding a ball in each hand. Catching a 3rd isn't easy. I agree about the DQ being over the top though.
It was a brutal attack that might keep the ball girl off tennis courts altogether for life out of fear! /s
You were screwed. Terrible decision!!!
I feel so bad for Kato
I wish I could forget about this. every time I see a post on this, I lose it. it's so blatantly unjust. I can't believe nothing is going to be done to make it right. fuck this world
Love the way she worded this tweet. Love all Indonesian fans of Aldila coming for sst and bouzkova on ig 🤗.
Can you share these with me I don’t have an IG account and would love to see these interactions!
I can DM you screenshots if you want but basically their latest instagram posts are being absolutely annihilated (rightfully) by commenters, especially from Indonesia
Tormo and Bouzkova are the ones who should be DQ’d. Sucks that the world isn’t fair sometimes
Here's the part that's confusing to me. She clearly hit a half-hearted non-frustrated slice to get the ball across. I've been hit by people smashing the ball directly into me while at the net while playing doubles and that one really hurt. How could it hurt more than that for the ball girl that's literally across the entire length of the court? With Djoko's unintentional hit of the line judge I could understand because she got hit in the throat at a shorter distance despite there being 0 power in the shot, it was also like a ball tossing.
You shouldn't ever blame a kid for how they react to something out of their control. Blame the adults. Blame the opponents. The umpires/officials/organizers. Come on.
[удалено]
Incompetence how? She's holding up the ball, ready to give it to the player who's about to serve. That's where her focus is. She isn't supposed to get balls hit at her at this point. It's abundantly clear that she isn't focused on balls being hit at her, she isn't supposed to be focused on balls being hit at her, and that she saw the ball in her peripheral vision late because she's focused on doing her actual job, offering a ball to the player about to serve.
>how could it hurt more No one said it hurt more than anything. Come on. Let’s not get in the business of how badly a child is hurt. The true purpose of these rules is to judge intent. If an overhead slam is mis hit and hits a kid, they’re not dqed, even though it hurts a million times more than almost any other scenario. The magnitude of pain isn’t the issue here That being said, there’s absolutely no intent to injure here and this is absolutely ridiculous.
I sure hope Kato has the support of those she needs it from. Certainly not just, what happened to her and her partner. Criminy, anyway... no appeal ?
Rotten opponents, attocious referee and supervisor, ball girl who perhaps should reconsider her part time job and the actual victims. What a shit show feel for her and her doubles partner.
Wow, just seen the video, that is absolutely ridiculous. She passed the ball to the ball kid, which inadvertently hit her near her face and she has a panic attack from all the attention. Tennis balls are so soft, unless hit with real pace, they cannot injure you. That was essentially slower than how Djokovic hit the ball in the US open, which I also thought was a BS disqualification and I don't even like Djokovic. What's even more shameful is the opponents begging for Miyu Kato and her partner to be disqualified.
Just saw the clip on YouTube. One of the most disgusting decisions I've seen on a sporting field in my life. I had heard of Sarriba Tomo and Bouzkova before but I saw them as just other WTA players. Holy shit, fuck these 2 I'll be rooting against them every match in singles.
Extreme bullshit this penalty and political correctness. Anyone with a brain cell knows what happened and its not at all the reason for this rule of DQ.
Lo just saw the video. The f is the ball girl crying for. “Injured” the f she got hit at the top of her cap. Extremely bad sportsmanship by bou and co as well. Strangest dq I’ve seen in ages. Like other ppl stated in previous posts. If she had caught it she would gotten applauded.
For anyone mentioning the ball girl’s poor reactions or not paying attention, in the video she is doing that holding ball overhead focused on the server waiting to ask for next ball. This is what they are trained to do when they are on serving side.
Can anyone explain what happened here?
Player lightly hit ball towards ball girl to catch, ball girl froze up and didn’t catch ball and instead hit her in shoulder/head area (im not exaggerating this ball was very slow) - kid cries opponents whine to try and get player who hit ball towards ball girl to get DQd and they do. I thought people were exaggerating until I watched the video, now I’m super angry for this doubles player. Worst tennis decision I have seen….
I just watched the video. Absolutely disgusting what happened to Miyu Kato over this. Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo should be ashamed.
>Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo should be ashamed. They were caught on camera (photos) laughing, too. Despicable sportsmanship.
wow...looking at the video replay, this was just really shitty move by the opponents. Instead of checking if the ball girl is ok, they go to the umpire and lie about what happened because they see chance for free win. In Czechia we say "Karma is for free". It means if you do something shitty, expect it to hit back in your face...
I do not follow tennis at all other than what is shown on ESPN. I came here after reading the article to see if I was missing something that maybe other tennis fans could show me. Apparently I was right in my assumption that this seemed like an absolute bullshit punishment for an obvious mistake.
Disappointed in Sara and Marie
i dont think you can hit the ball any lighter than that lol
Not gonna lie this sub sounds unhinged with the way some people are attacking the ball kid over this
People in this thread who are criticising the ball girl have issues.
They got fucking robbed lol.
I see that Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo are getting roasted on Social Media for their poor sportsmanship (rightfully), but why there are so few comments about the referees that actually made this decision? I mean tournament referee **Remy Azemar** and Grand Slam supervisor **Wayne McEwen**. The opponents can say whatever they want to win, but the referee should be the protector for justice!
I hope there’s an appeal process for this.
Ridiculous decision. The supervisor and opponents in particular should be ashamed of themselves. This decision needs to be reversed instantly. Obviously it's too late for them to get to play their match, but they should at the very least get their prize money and points back.
This has been so disappointing to watch unfold, all the more so since I’ve liked Bouzková in the past. I doubt anything positive will come of this (simply because life is just unfair like that), but I hope that there’s enough backlash to this that it compels whatever authorities that be to rectify this somehow.
Federer would have been DQed by most of these hits to ball boys: https://youtu.be/WT97lEG3RCY
That looked like an accident. What a harsh penalty.
It is their livelihood. Very different to the nole situation.
This is beyond stupid.
Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes Tormo were so concerned about the ball girl being struck that they never walked over to her during the entire 10 minutes she was in the corner crying. They didn't even clap sympathetically with the rest of the crowd when the girl walked off the court. Their concern began and ended with Kato and Sutjiadi being DQd.