"He could strangle a kid and wouldn't have been penalized" - Tennis fans bring up Roger Federer hitting ball kid in light of French Open controversy

Miyu Kato and Aldila Sutjiadi's disqualification at the 2023 French Open after the former accidentally hit a ball girl has led tennis fans to recall similar incidents from the past. One of them involved Roger Federer, and it did not lead to a disqualification.

Kato and Sutjiadi were up against Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes Tormo in the third round of the women's doubles at the 2023 French Open on Sunday. The game was at 7-6 (1), 1-3 when Kato accidentally hit the ball girl with a ball.

While the chair umpire initially gave the Japanese player a warning, the decision was changed to a disqualification after Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo protested. This meant that Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo won by default, and Kato and Sutjiadi lost all the ranking points and prize money they gained at the 2023 French Open.

The decision triggered an uproar in the tennis community. Many considered it unjust as Kato did not hit the ball that hard and even apologized to the girl later.

Some fans brought up past instances involving Roger Federer when he hit a ball kid and did not get disqualified. Tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg also posted about Federer, saying that the Swiss often returned the ball to the ball kid at a high speed with his racket, nearly creating situations similar to Kato.

"Regardless of if this was the right call or not, and I don't think it was, players can afford to be more careful with this stuff, anyhow. Roger Federer, notably, often played with fire by zipping balls at ball boys in Australia to test their cricket catches. Mixed results," Rothenberg tweeted.

Several fans recalled an incident from the 2014 Monte Carlo Open in particular. Roger Federer, who was facing Novak Djokovic in the semifinal at the event, hit a ball boy stationed at the net. The ball boy was seemingly not aware that Federer was passing him the ball, and took a hit on his head.

Many pointed out that no action was taken despite Federer's casual hit; instead, everyone just laughed it off.

"This is one of the most dumbest decisions I've seen not just in tennis but in sport!! No malice or harm intended, a pure accident & they get defaulted. If the ball kid caught the ball there would have been a round of applause!! Federer hit a ball kid & it was laughed off," a fan wrote.

"Y’all remember when Federer got DQ’ed for plunking a ball kid? Yeah, me neither," another fan tweeted.

"This says it all; They did not disqualify him because the ballboy did not cry nor was the opponent opportunistic," a fan tweeted.

"Bizarre decision. Federer has unintentionally hit a ball child 10 times," another fan wrote.

"It’s unfortunate that Kato & Sutjiadi were defaulted. Ball kids do need to be protected but the action didn’t warrant a default. Federer did the same thing and wasn’t penalized. Bouzkova and SST pushing for the default is disappointing and uncalled for," a user said.

Here are some more fan reactions highlighting past incidents where players hit the ball kid and escaped punishment.

"Fed is a bad example. He could have strangled a ball kid and wouldn’t have been penalized. Lmao," one fan wrote.

"I am always gonna be a ball boy" - When Roger Federer talked about his time as a ball kid

Roger Federer with the ball kids

In his early days in tennis, Roger Federer spent two years as a ball kid on the court. He famously served as a ball kid at the Swiss Indoors in Basel.

The 41-year-old has often looked back on his ball kid days, calling them a memorable time that shaped his view of the sport.

"It's a great memory for me, I loved being a ballboy here, I was able to see the best players in the world, first-hand, and see how they would prepare and how they should sweat and how they did they deal with the pressure and yeah, it's good moments for me," Federer recalled during an interview with Tennis TV in 2019.

"I guess it means I am still a ball boy too because at heart, I am always gonna be a ball boy," he added.

In 2018 Federer called upon the tennis community to protect ball kids, who he advised to make the most of their opportunity. Federer also called ball kids the "future" of tennis.

"There were no negatives, so you don’t want to have them leave feeling like, oh my god, like I was not appreciated or I was not liked or it was actually a horrible thing, you know? So yes, it needs to be taken care of. The ball kids are really important to us because they are also maybe the future of our game,” he said (via Reuters).