The 2023 French Open was full of surprises, especially for Japanese tennis professional, Miyu Kato. She won the mixed doubles event in Paris, however, she was also defaulted from the third round of the women’s doubles event alongside her partner, Aldila Sutjiadi.
The unfortunate event took place after Kato unintentionally hit a ball kid after a point. Initially, the Chair Umpire gave the Japanese tennis player a warning as she also checked on the kid.
However, their third-round opponents, Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo, and the Czech Republic’s Marie Bouzkova went to the chair umpire and told him that the ball kid has been constantly crying. Thus, the supervisor of the match was called to the court.
After a few minutes of discussion and talks, it was announced that the pair of Kato and Sutjiadi has been defaulted from the women’s doubles event of the French Open. The disqualification also resulted in the pair losing all of their earned prize money and points.
Miyu Kato:
“The umpire & supervisor told me ‘If the ballkid was a boy, it would’ve been ok.’ They explained to me that since the girl cried for more than 15 minthey had to make a decision, bc if she had stopped after 5 minutes, everything would have been alright’”
No words. pic.twitter.com/UkXKPEroXa
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) June 22, 2023
However, a couple of weeks later after the event concluded, Miyu Kato opened up about the incident in an interview with CLAY. She disclosed that the officials stated that if the ball kid was a boy, they wouldn’t have defaulted. Moreover, the girl cried for 15 minutes, if she had stopped crying after five minutes, things would have been under control.
“They also explained to me that since the girl cried for more than 15 minutes they had to decide because if she had stopped after five minutes, everything would have been alright; 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.
After getting disqualified, the 28-year-old failed to stop her tears and she quickly started crying. Her Indonesian teammate, Aldila Sutjiadi was seen consoling her doubles partner after the abrupt end to their Roland Garros campaign.
Miyu Kato wanted to head back to Japan after what happened
The 28-year-old Japanese tennis professional revealed that after getting disqualified, she just sat in the Locker room alone as didn’t want to talk to anyone or even check social media. Miyu Kato also revealed that she even wanted to go back to Japan after the disqualification.
“My mind was very bad. After the disqualification, I seriously thought about going home to Japan. I spent several hours in the locker room, I didn’t want to check social media, I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I had to go to doping control, so I waited there alone,” she said.
Miyu Kato, disqualified from the doubles tournament, losing all the points and prize money, reaches the Mixed Doubles’ final together with Puetz, defeating her partner Sutjiadi and Middelkoop.
Can’t lie, we all are rooting for her to claim the 🏆!pic.twitter.com/hQh3ZY2cAX
— Relevant Tennis (@RelevantTennis) June 7, 2023
Miyu Kato and Aldila Sutjiadi’s third-round opponents Sara Sorribes Tormo and Marie Bouzkova received severe backlash on social media after they went to the Chair Umpire complaining. Although it seemed like Kato was trying to pass the ball to the ball kid.