Sorribes Tormo defends herself against criticism following Kato default
Kato disqualified after accidentally striking ball girl with ball
Spaniard and doubles partner Bouzkova protested warning
Tumaini Carayol at Roland Garros
Mon 5 Jun 2023 22.30 BST
Sara Sorribes Tormo has defended herself against intense criticism following the controversial default of Miyu Kato from their French Open third-round doubles match on Sunday. Kato, meanwhile, has lodged an appeal against the default.
During the second set of the match in which the Spanish-Czech pair Sorribes Tormo and Marie Bouzkova were playing against Kato and Aldila Sutjiadi of Japan and Indonesia, Kato accidentally struck a ball girl with a ball, who burst into tears. Kato did not strike the ball in anger.
The umpire, Alexandre Juge, initially gave Kato and Sutjiadi a warning but Sorribes Tormo and Bouzkova protested. They pointed out that the ball girl was crying, suggested she was bleeding and one of the players stated: “This is default.” After some time, and the arrival of the supervisor, a tearful Kato was defaulted. The victors have since received significant criticism for their role in the decision.
“First of all, we were saying that the ball kid was crying because we were scared, because we were [saying]: ‘Oh, something happened,’” said Sorribes Tormo. “Then we were saying that the ball was direct because [the umpire] didn’t see the ball. All the rest [of] the decision was taken by the supervisor, and I think it’s not our thing or we haven’t done anything bad. That’s the only thing I’m going to say about this.”
After releasing a statement on Twitter, Kato returned to the court a day later, winning her mixed doubles quarter-final with her partner, Tim Puetz. From the beginning of the press conference, Kato was tearful, leading to the moderator briefly ushering her out of the room. When she returned, she told reporters in Japanese that she was appealing against the decision to the grand slam board.
Kato explained in Japanese that she had received ample support from players in the locker room. One supportive player was Alizé Cornet, who tweeted at Kato, pointedly stated that a lot of players were supporting her “except Marie and Sara obviously”.
After her own doubles match on Monday, Cornet was extremely critical: “Yesterday, what happened, we reached a peak of injustice,” she said in French. “Especially Kato! She almost apologises for living. To be disqualified for that … When I think about it, it makes me want to break everything. She was crying. I hate injustice. The referee really made a huge mistake. He was influenced by the other players. The tournament should apologise to Kato. They disqualified her! The strongest thing you can do.”
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/ ... ult-tennis