French Open: ‘Careless’ – Tim Henman reacts after doubles pair disqualified for hitting ‘very upset’ ball kid

The British tennis legend, who memorably got himself disqualified from the men’s doubles at Wimbledon in 1995 for inadvertently hitting a ball kid, has shared his experience and thoughts on the matter after Miyu Kato and her partner, Aldila Sutjiadi, were defaulted from the women’s doubles at Roland-Garros on Sunday.

The pair were leading in the second set of their third-round match against Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes Tormo in Paris when Kato whacked a ball up the other end of the court after a point and accidentally hurt the ball kid, who was left visibly distressed by what had occurred.

Henman empathised with Kato for the unfortunate nature of what unfolded, but he also made it clear that “you have to take responsibility” in that scenario and said it was “careless” to hit the ball away to the other end of the court in such a manner.

“Speaking from experience, I got disqualified at Wimbledon,” Henman began on Eurosport. “I sent Wayne McKewen a message and 29 years in between, I said ‘wow, you were the umpire then, and you’re the supervisor today, still disqualifying people from Grand Slams for hitting ball kids!’

“It’s one of those where you have to take responsibility when you are hitting the ball around the court, even passing it to the other end. She’s just flicking the backhand, and it’s careless.

“There’s no malicious intent, but when she’s hit the ball, it’s then gone into the ball girl, and she was very upset and distressed by that. It puts the umpire, supervisor and referee in a difficult position.”

Nick Kyrgios, who was unable to participate at the French Open due to injury, added his thoughts on Twitter.

“It’s not about the intent, if you hit a ball at a kid it’s a default,” Kyrgios said with a sleeping emoji.

On Sunday, Eurosport’s Alex Corretja made the case for the disqualification of Kato and Sutjiadi being too strict and severe.

“You need to be careful where you put the ball because you can hit someone, as has happened,” Corretja began.

“She hit the ball girl, but I’m 100% sure she didn’t mean it, and she didn’t hurt her much or even a little bit. There was a lot of discussion with the referee and umpire. In my opinion, on this occasion, it was too strict to disqualify her because it was very slow.

“Of course, you need to respect the decision, but I don’t think it was as bad as to do that. I feel bad first of all for the girl, but as a tennis player, I don’t think it was enough to disqualify the player.

“It’s difficult because when you hit someone it’s risky, and we saw that with Novak [Djokovic] when he hit the line judge’s throat at the US Open. But that was harder and closer, and it hurt her.

“On this occasion, it hit the ball kid’s back. It’s always tough, but you can see she was trying to pass the ball to the other side of the court. That happens many times, even if you hit your opponent or if the ball kids are running.

“For me, it was a little bit too strict,” he concluded. “It is subjective, and that’s the toughest part of the sport, when you judge something that you didn’t even see. Not even the chair umpire or the referee saw the whole thing happen.

“I don’t think it was hard enough or intentional enough. I know that it was not intentional. No one hits the ball intentionally to hit someone.”

– – –