French Open 2023: Disqualification for Miyu Kato hitting ball kid 'too strict' says Alex Corretja after drama

Eurosport's Alex Corretja has made the case for the disqualification of Miyu Kato and her doubles partner Aldila Sutjiadi being too strict after a ball kid got hit at the French Open on Sunday. The distressing moment occurred during their women's doubles third-round match against Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes Tormo at Roland-Garros. Kato struck a ball up the other end of the court between points while they were leading 3-1 at 30-30 in the second set, having lost the opener on a tie-break, and it inadvertently hit a ball kid, who was left in tears by the incident.

Ad Initially, the chair umpire gave Kato a warning, but Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo walked over to him to highlight the fact that the ball kid was visibly upset by what had happened and a delay ensued as the supervisor was called. Eventually, it was decided by the supervisor that Kato and Sutjiadi should be defaulted from the match due to the incident, despite it having been an accident. Roland-Garros'Mischievous' – Alcaraz tricks Musetti with sublime drop shotAN HOUR AGO Kato was left very distressed by being defaulted and Sutjiadi had to comfort her partner as they came to terms with the fact that their campaign at Roland-Garros had been brought to an abrupt end.

For Corretja, the punishment was too severe. «You need to be careful where you put the ball because you can hit someone, as has happened,» Corretja began. «She hit the ball girl, but I’m 100% sure she didn’t mean it, and she didn’t hurt her much or even a little bit.

There was a lot of discussion with the referee and umpire. In my opinion, on this occasion, it was too strict to disqualify her because it was very slow. 'She's crying!' — Doubles pair disqualified after accidentally hitting ball kid