French Open doubles player Miyu Kato and her partner have been forced to forfeit a match after the Japanese player accidentally hit a ball girl in the neck with a ball after a point.
In the second set on Court 14 at Roland Garros on Sunday, Kato took a swing with her racquet and the ball flew towards the ball kid, who was not looking in the player’s direction while heading off the court.
At first, chair umpire Alexandre Juge only issued a warning to Kato.
But after tournament referee Remy Azemar and Grand Slam supervisor, Australian Wayne McKewen, went to Court 14 to look into what happened, Kato and her partner, Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia, were disqualified.
The unfortunate episode left the ball girl crying and the disqualified Kato needing comfort from Sutjiadi because she was distressed by what she had done.
That left Marie Bouzková of the Czech Republic and Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain the winners of the match.
