Sorribes Tormo defends herself against criticism following Kato default

• Kato disqualified after accidentally striking ball girl with ball
• Spaniard and doubles partner Bouzkova protested warning

Sara Sorribes Tormo has defended herself against intense criticism following the controversial default of Miyu Kato from their French Open third-round doubles match on Sunday. Kato, meanwhile, has lodged an appeal against the default.

During the second set of the match in which the Spanish-Czech pair Sorribes Tormo and Marie Bouzkova were playing against Kato and Aldila Sutjiadi of Japan and Indonesia, Kato accidentally struck a ball girl with a ball, who burst into tears. Kato did not strike the ball in anger.

The umpire, Alexandre Juge, initially gave Kato and Sutjiadi a warning but Sorribes Tormo and Bouzkova protested. They pointed out that the ball girl was crying, suggested she was bleeding and one of the players stated: “This is default.” After some time, and the arrival of the supervisor, a tearful Kato was defaulted. The victors have since received significant criticism for their role in the decision.

“First of all, we were saying that the ball kid was crying because we were scared, because we were [saying]: ‘Oh, something happened,’” said Sorribes Tormo. “Then we were saying that the ball was direct because [the umpire] didn’t see the ball. All the rest [of] the decision was taken by the supervisor, and I think it’s not our thing or we haven’t done anything bad. That’s the only thing I’m going to say about this.”

After releasing a statement on Twitter, Kato returned to the court a day later, winning her mixed doubles quarter-final with her partner, Tim Puetz. From the beginning of the press conference, Kato was tearful, leading to the moderator briefly ushering her out of the room. When she returned, she told reporters in Japanese that she was appealing against the decision to the grand slam board.

Kato explained in Japanese that she had received ample support from players in the locker room. One supportive player was Alizé Cornet, who tweeted at Kato, pointedly stated that a lot of players were supporting her “except Marie and Sara obviously”.

After her own doubles match on Monday, Cornet was extremely critical: “Yesterday, what happened, we reached a peak of injustice,” she said in French. “Especially Kato! She almost apologises for living. To be disqualified for that … When I think about it, it makes me want to break everything. She was crying. I hate injustice. The referee really made a huge mistake. He was influenced by the other players. The tournament should apologise to Kato. They disqualified her! The strongest thing you can do.”

Meanwhile, Holger Rune, the sixth seed, reached his second consecutive French Open quarter-final, winning an absorbing four-hour, five-set match against Francisco Cerundolo 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(7). Rune had trailed 3-4, 0-40 before holding serve and then narrowly winning the final set match tiebreak to clinch his first career five-set win.

Rune will face Casper Ruud in a rematch of last year’s fractious quarter-final. Ruud, the fourth seed and last year’s runner-up, defeated Nicolás Jarry 7-6(3), 7-5, 7-5.

A day after losing to Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, Daria Kasatkina lamented being booed off Court Suzanne Lenglen. The Russian, who has previously described the Ukrainian players’ stance of not shaking Russian players hands as “understandable”, gestured a thumbs up towards Svitolina. Svitolina responded with a thumbs up and said “thanks” in Russian, later describing Kasatkina as “a brave one.” Still, as Kasatkina left the court, the crowd booed.

“Me and Elina showed respect to each other after a tough match but leaving the court like that was the worst part of yesterday. Be better, love each other. Don’t spread hate,” she said.

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