The tennis community has criticized Sorribes Tormo and partner Marie Bouzkova for attempting to force a default after Kato’s errant shot on Sunday in doubles hit a ball girl.
As Kato was only given a warning and Sorribes Tormo and Bouzkova were accused of inciting a default in their favor by pointing out that the ball girl who was struck by the ball was sobbing, sentiment on social media and among other players has swiftly turned against them. Social media users also shared a screenshot of Sorribes Tormo and Bouzkova that appeared to depict the two laughing after Kato was disqualified and lost the ranking points and prize money she had won in the women’s doubles competition as a result.
Sara commented: “First of all, it’s a very bad situation that happened yesterday. Also, for Marie and for me it’s tough to have all this kind of things that people are saying. It’s not easy because the only thing we’ve done yesterday was going to the referee and explain him what happened.
So, first of all, we were saying that the ball kid was crying because we were scared, because we were, oh, something happened. Then we were saying that the ball was direct because he didn’t saw the ball. All the rest the decision was taken by the supervisor, and I think it’s not our thing or we haven’t done anything bad. Yeah, that’s the only thing I’m going to say about this, what happened yesterday.”
“If Kato would’ve done this gesture and it would’ve gone this much away from the girl, nothing would’ve happened and we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Bouzkova added.
Sara Sorribes Tormo in 2023
Now ranked no.132, the Spaniard played her last match on the 5th of June when she was defeated by world no.14 Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-7(3) 6-3 7-5 in the 4th round of the French Open (draw).
During this season the Spaniard has achieved a 12-6 match record. Sara Sorribes Tormo’s best result of the year was reaching the final in the W100 Madrid.
Marie Bouzkova in 2023
WWLWLLLWWW At the moment ranked no.33, Marie played her last match on the 30th of May when she lost to world no.80 Xinyu Wang 6-4 7-6(5) in the 1st round of the French Open (draw).
At the moment, during this season Marie owns a composed 11-14 win-loss record.
Sara Sorribes Tormo and Marie Bouzkova played each other 3 times. Their current head to head is 2-1 for Sorribes Tormo. The last time they squared off, Marie Bouzkova won 6-4 6-1 in the quarter in Guadalajara (Abierto De Guadalajara) in February 2022.
