Bitter tears, press conference canceled – drama about the Japanese continues
As of 3:06 p.m
Tears after the tragedy: Miyu Kato (right) is comforted by her doubles partner
Quelle: picture alliance / Kyodo
Miyu Kato was questionably disqualified in the doubles competition at the French Open. Now the Japanese is in the semi-finals of the mixed competition. After the win it gets emotional again. Your German partner intervenes.
Tim Pütz was in demand as a comforter. The Frankfurt tennis pro first hugged his crying partner Miyu Kato after winning the mixed quarterfinals at the French Open, and at the press conference he repeatedly handed out tissues. The Japanese had been disqualified in her women’s doubles match the previous day for hitting a ball girl with a ball. This was still visibly close to the 28-year-old after winning alongside Pütz.
Even before the first question from the journalists, Kato wept bitterly, and the press conference was initially canceled. When the duo got back on stage, she initially responded in Japanese but couldn’t get a word out in English. Pütz then tried to put her thoughts into words in front of the world press.
He hopes that the game will help her, said the 35-year-old on Monday evening in a smaller group in German. “It doesn’t matter that we’re in the mixed semifinals. The main thing is that she copes and can keep playing for the next few weeks. Something like that can snowball, become a disaster for the next few weeks.”
disqualification on demand
On Sunday, Kato initially received a warning after hitting a ball girl. The pictures show that she did this without intention and not with full force. Only when her opponents pointed it out did the referee come on and disqualified Kato and doubles partner Aldila Sutjiadi from Indonesia. Kato apologized to the young people on the court and later via Twitter.
“A lot of people have said, ‘That was the worst disqualification they’ve ever seen. That was a shock, but more because it just happened and not because it was my mixed partner,” Pütz reported of numerous conversations with other professionals in the dressing room and felt sympathy: “She won’t come home until after Wimbledon. If something like that happened to me and I had to stay in Asia for another six weeks, you could bury your head in the sand.”
Miyo Kato, here with mixed partner Tim Pütz, is a topic of conversation in Paris
Source: dpa/Frank Molter
The fact that the two compete together in mixed in Paris is just a big coincidence. With their respective partners, they lacked the necessary ranking points when registering for the tournament. Then Kato’s original playing partner asked at the last minute if Pütz didn’t want to play with her. “Hi, do we want to play together?” He then asked her, the Davis Cup professional recalled with a laugh, “Miyu said: ‘Maybe. What is your ranking position?”’
Kato was satisfied with 23rd place – and so the two could still land the big hit in Paris after all the tears.
