{"id":304456,"date":"2023-06-05T21:45:46","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T21:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=304456"},"modified":"2023-06-05T22:58:34","modified_gmt":"2023-06-05T22:58:34","slug":"kyrgios-takes-aim-at-absurd-ball-girl-furore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=304456","title":{"rendered":"Kyrgios takes aim at 'absurd' ball girl furore"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aussie tennis<\/a> firebrand Nick Kyrgios<\/a> has taken aim at those \ufeffcriticising a Roland-Garros<\/a> doubles disqualification decision.<\/p>\n

Women's doubles partners Miyu Kato and Aldila Sutjiadi were defaulted by tournament referees when \ufeffKato whacked a ball that accidentally then hit a ball girl in the neck<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But it was their opponents, Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes Tormo\ufeff, who wore the brunt of public disdain following the controversy.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Brave' Russian player booed for 'respectful' act<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\ufeffREAD MORE:<\/strong> Savage Roosters dismissal a 'slap in the face'<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE: \ufeff<\/strong>'Awakening': Uncomfortable Clarkson question looms<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Bouzkova and Tormo\ufeff were accused of bad sportsmanship for pushing the chair umpire to default their opponents following the incident.<\/p>\n

Kyrgios – who withdrew from Roland-Garros due to injury and has not played a tournament yet this year – was watching the furore unfold from afar.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

He took to Twitter to criticise those who had called out \ufeffBouzkova and Tormo for asking for a default.<\/p>\n

"All around the world, whether it be people chanting your name, idolising you, getting booed at, it's always going to be a factor in sport," Kyrgios said.<\/p>\n

"Why are we having so many people complain about it?<\/p>\n

Watch Roland-Garros 2023 live and free on<\/strong> 9now<\/strong><\/a>.\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n

"Also, it's not about the intent, if you hit a ball at a kid it's a default (sleeping emoji)."<\/p>\n

Kyrgios also quoted a tweet from prominent tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg, who posted a video of sporting legend Roger Federer whacking a ball during a match which was caught by a ball kid.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/NickKyrgios\/status\/1665657145411399681?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/NickKyrgios\/status\/1665729679817359361?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

"Roger Federer, notably, often played with fire by zipping balls at ball boys in Australia to test their cricket catches," Rothenberg said.<\/p>\n

Kyrgios responded to the comment by laughing.<\/p>\n

"Now it gets ridiculous," Kyrgios said.<\/p>\n

Watch Roland-Garros 2023 from May 28. Every match ad free and on demand.<\/strong> Centre court coverage in 4K UHD on Stan Sport<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"The (greatest of all time) having some fun and the ball kids are catching it, making their life memory compared to outside doubles matches.<\/p>\n

"Absurd (laughing emoji)."<\/p>\n

Some responses pointed out Kyrgios was lucky to not be penalised when he whacked a ball into the crowd during his 2022 Australian Open doubles run, and it hit a child.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/crosscourt1\/status\/1665676165904842753?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

But the Aussie found an ally in tennis reporter Craig Gabriel, who agreed there was no other decision but to default\ufeff Kato and Sutjiadi.<\/p>\n

"I'm sorry but the rhetoric over women's doubles team default is pointless," Gabriel tweeted.<\/p>\n

"Yes it's unfortunate, no malice was intended but hat happened was against the rules.<\/p>\n

"I can guarantee if everything was exactly the same but it was Nick Kyrgios everyone would be baying for blood."\ufeff<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aussie tennis firebrand Nick Kyrgios has taken aim at those \ufeffcriticising a Roland-Garros doubles disqualification decision. Women's doubles partners Miyu Kato and Aldila Sutjiadi were […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":304008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304456"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=304456"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":304458,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304456\/revisions\/304458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/304008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=304456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=304456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=304456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}