Czech tennis player Marie Bouzková advances to Roland Garros quarterfinals after disqualification controversy

PARIS – Czech tennis player Marie Bouzková advanced to the Roland Garros quarterfinals with her doubles partner Sara Sorribesová Tormová after the disqualification of the Japanese-Indonesian couple Miju Katóová and Aldila Sutjiadiová. The rivals were disqualified at 7:6, 1:3 for the Czech-Spanish pair after the Japanese player hit one of the ball collectors with the ball.

Bouzková and Sorribesová avoided three set points in the first set and won the tie-break 7:1. The rivals won a break in the second set and led 3:1. In the interrupted game at 30:30, Katóová passed the ball behind the net. After a one-handed backhand shot, she hit one of the ball collectors on the other side of the court in the shoulder, who was just ready to throw the ball to the serving Sorribes.

Sara Sorribes and Marie Bouzkova, at 1/4F of #RolandGarros for disqualification of Kato/Sutjiadi

Kato has hit a ball boy with the ball with the point already finished pic.twitter.com/qT54pQvS5y

– Fran Marco (@FranMarco19) June 4, 2023

Sorribesová and Bouzková complained about the whole situation to the imperial referee. The match was interrupted for a few minutes, and after an investigation, the referee and the supervisor decided on disqualification. Kató mourned the verdict. “Of course, similar things have happened before. It’s difficult. The girl cried for 15 minutes. I think the referee only gave a warning at first because he had no idea that the girl was in so much pain that she was crying. We told him that he should look because the ball was flying straight to the girl and it wasn’t a slow shot,” the DPA agency quoted Bouzková’s statement.

Kato/Sutjiadi vs. Bouzkova / Sorribes Tormo
Dramatic stuff going on with Kato hitting a ball girl involuntarily (the girl wasn’t looking)…
An investigation is taking place on court. pic.twitter.com/3wd9tJVFTM

— No F Body (@no_fcking_body) June 4, 2023

A strange procedure

“It’s a strange feeling. Strange because of everything that happened. It wasn’t easy for us either. We just wanted to tell the referee to notice a little bit what happened. And that the girl actually cried for 15 minutes afterwards, so that ball was probably not played, which the opponent was saying. That was all. Then we left it to him.” said Bouzková after the meeting with journalists.

She called the procedure strange. “It’s nice to be in the quarterfinals in singles for the third time, even if it’s not exactly the sweetest. The match was at a high level, the opponents also played well, but on the other hand, you don’t want to be in that situation.” added the native of Prague.

Sorribesová and Bouzková will challenge the American-Australian couple Nicole Melicharová-Martinezová, Ellen Perezová, or the Chinese couple Su Yi-fan and Yang Chao-süan in the next stage.

• Author: © List
• VIDEO: Twitter/Fran Marco, No F Body
• Source: ČTK, TASR, Športky