“Severely hit their opponents financially” – Sara Sorribes Tormo and Marie Bouzkova shredded by fans for demanding DEFAULT against Miyu Kato and Aldila Sutjiadi in latest French Open controversy
While passing the ball between points, it flew off the racket of Kato and hit the baseline ball girl on the head.
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Miyu Kato's disqualification (Image via Eurosport)
Third-round action in the women’s doubles draw at 2023 Roland Garros and the spice didn’t take any time to enter. The match between Sara Sorribes Tormo, Marie Bouzkova, Miyu Kato, and Aldila Sutjiadi made sure all eyes were on Court 14.
A default call on the back of an unintentional hit on the head of a ball girl was the thing everyone was interested in. This reminded fans of Novak Djokovic’s default at the 2020 US Open.
The first set was tightly contested. The European pair won it 7-6 in the tiebreaker. However, the match took a whacky turn in the second as the Asian pair defaulted for unsportsmanlike conduct. Sutjiadi and Kato were leading the second set 3-1, and that’s when, while passing the ball between points, it flew off the racket of Kato and hit the baseline ball girl on the head. The umpire did take notice of it.
However, what triggered her to default to the Asian pair shocked the tennis community. Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo were the ones who complained to the umpire. They made sure they got the advantage here, and the Asian pair defaulted.
This complaint of theirs in many ways forced the umpire to default Sutjiadi and Kato. The Asian pair were gutted as they were leading and had a golden opportunity to level the match.
Related: Coco Gauff expresses frustration with constant chatter on her age overshadowing her performances
Twitter condemns Sorribes Tormo and Bouzkova on their demand to get the Asian pair a default
The Twitter world was very quick to react to the situation. They felt that this default was baseless, and the European pair made a big deal out of it. The ball was not hit intentionally by Kato. She just passed it, and it accidentally went all the way and hit the ball girl.
Sharing a wide spectrum of reactions online, have a look at some of the tweets –
Twitter is very disappointed with what it saw from the European pair. They would certainly not want something of this sort to repeat. However, the current situation is that the European pair has progressed to the quarterfinals. Interestingly, Sorribes Tormo has been rewarded with a default and a walkover in the last 24 hours.
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Manan Mehta
(215 Articles Published)