Aldila Sutjiadi from Indonesia and Miyu Kato from Japan must bury their dream of reaching the quarter-finals of the 2023 French Open in the women’s doubles sector. They were disqualified.
The pair were tragically eliminated due to an incident where the ball hit by Miyu Kato accidentally hit the ball girl’s shoulder. It seems that the ball girl was shocked by the incident which led to Aldila/Kato’s decision to be disqualified.
This happened when Aldila/Kato faced Marie Bouzkova (Czech)/Sara Sorribes Tormo (Spain) in the third round match at Roland Garros, Sunday (4/6/2023). The match entered the second set when Aldila/Kato won 3-1.
The Indonesian-Japanese pair are trying to avenge the 6-7 (1-7) defeat they got in the first set. But in one moment, Kato, who was in front of the net, intended to get rid of the ball out of the game area. As it turned out, the ball hit the back of the head of a ball girl who was behind the enemy’s playing area.
The ball girl looked shaking and very surprised. Kato immediately approached her and apologized. After that, Kato received a warning from the referee. But Bouzkova/Tormo protested so the match supervisor entered the field and spoke to Aldila/Kato. He informed them that they were disqualified for the incident.
Quoted from BBC Sport, Kato, a 31-year-old player, cried due to the punishment and Aldila tried to calm her down. Then, Kato made an apology to the ball girl via social media Twitter. “I would like to sincerely apologize to my ball girl, partner and supporters for today’s unfortunate accident,” Kato tweeted. “That was completely unintentional. As a result, I was punished by Roland Garros by forfeiting my prize money and points.”
Actually, this kind of story is not the first. Former world number one men’s singles tennis player, Novak Djokovic, also experienced something similar at the 2020 US Open Grand Slam. An official told the BBC that this incident must be held accountable. Kato (and Djokovic) have paid the price.
“If you hit someone and they get injured, you have to be responsible for that action. Even if you didn’t do it on purpose, you still have to be responsible,” he was quoted as saying by the BBC. Eliminated as a result of disqualification from the women’s doubles sector, Aldila and Kato still have hope of achieving an achievement from the mixed doubles sector.
Together with their respective partners, both of them managed to reach the quarter-finals of Grand Slam. Aldila is partnered with a player from the Netherlands, Matwe Middelkoop, to face Angel Chan (Taiwan)/Fabrice Martin (France) on Tuesday (6/6) . Meanwhile, Kato, who is partnered with Team Putz (Germany), will face the Brazilian pair, Luisa Stefani/Rafael Matos.
If they pass the hurdles in the last eight, Aldila and Kato can meet in the semifinals. Because, both of them are in the upper half of the French Open 2023 mixed doubles draw chart.
