"You have to take responsibility": Henman takes different view on Sorribes-Tormo and Bouzkoka default incident

WTA
Monday, 05 June 2023 at 16:30
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Sunday's day at Roland Garros (French Open) featured a very unfortunate situation as a ball girl was hit by the player that hit her getting disqualified.
It was actually a double match with the player in question Kato from Spain. She carelessly hit a ball towards a ball girl which resulted in her getting hit. It was mainly because she couldn't dodge it on time as there was no malicious intent. The Eurosport crew reacted to the situation after the long day with Tim Henman sharing his view of the situation as he has experience with that. He was once disqualified from Wimbledon for a similar thing.

Rules are Rules

As Henman explained during the segment, unfortunately, the rules are the rules. There was no intention from Kato but she did hit a ballgirl and ultimately the umpires were compelled to disqualify her and her teammate:
"Unfortunately speaking from experience I got disqualified from Wimbledon. You have to take responsibility when you're hitting the ball around the court. She's just flicking the backhand, it's careless. I don't think there is any malicious intent but when she's hit the ball into the ball girl and then it just puts the umpire and the supervisor in a difficult position."
Mats Wilander had no reaction towards the incident because it's kind of hard to come to a great conclusion. Tennis fans on social media weren't a fan of the move, especially since their opponetns pushed towards teh disqualification. Initially the umpire on the court ruled it only a code violation but he was overruled by the supervisor who disqualified the playres.
As per rules, the players will also be forfeiting their prize money earnings. Kato released a statement on the matter apologizing to the ball girl for what had happened. She thanked fans for support.

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