Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: CLIVE MASON / GETTY IMAGES EUROPE / Getty Images via AFP 19:34 pm, June 04, 2023

It is a small controversy that has seized the aisles of Roland-Garros. A women's doubles pair was disqualified after one of the two players unintentionally threw a ball at a ball collector. Several players defended both players.

The doubles pair Miyu Kato - Aldila Sutjiadi were disqualified Sunday at Roland Garros after a ball collector was accidentally hit by a ball hit by the Japanese. As Kato and her Indonesian teammate led 3-1 in the second set after conceding the first to opponents Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes, the Japanese sent a bell ball from the net towards the ball collector who was on the waitress's side.

But this bullet hit the collector in the back of the head. Kato, 28, immediately apologized to the picker who was crying and shaking. The player initially received a warning, but, after protests from Bouzkova and Sorribes, the supervisor was called to the court and decided to disqualify Kato and her partner from this match of the third round of the women's doubles.

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"I didn't see what happened"

"I didn't see what happened, but I saw that the girl was still crying a quarter of an hour later," Bouzkova said. "At first there was only a warning because the referee didn't see that the girl was crying and she was in so much pain," she continued. "We told the supervisor that he needed to take a closer look at what happened because the girl was crying and the bullet hit her directly. It's not like the ball bounced or it's been slow," the Czech added.

When you demand the disqualification of the opposing team when you have not even seen the ball sent...
I hope that they will have a little trouble falling asleep anyway.
As for the decision itself.... Arbitration in all that is most stupid

— Gilles SIMON (@GillesSimon84) June 4, 2023

On social networks, several players were indignant about the situation, defending the pair of doubles disqualified. Gilles Simon denounced the state of mind of the two players who denounced their opponents. Lucas Pouille also defended the disqualified pair. At the 2020 US Open, Novak Djokovic was disqualified in similar circumstances: he hit back, without looking, a ball that hit a line judge directly.