Australian player Ellen Perez has demanded justice for Miyu Kato after Alex Michelsen wasn’t defaulted despite hitting a fan at the 2024 Winston-Salem Open. Kato was disqualified in Roland Garros 2023 after accidentally hitting a ball girl, who then trembled and cried. The fan hit by Michelsen, however, was okay with the player continuing with the match.
Michelsen faced Lorenzo Sonego in the final of the Winston-Salem Open, where the latter claimed a resounding 6-0, 6-3 victory. However, midway through the match, he accidentally hit a fan in frustration after going down 4-0 in the first set. Michelsen was not defaulted by umpire Aurelie Taurte after the fan confirmed she wasn’t hurt.
In an X post, the Tennis Channel live crew, Jon Wertheim, Steve Weissman, and Prakash Amritraj discussed how in somewhat similar events, Japanese player Miyu Kato was defaulted after hitting a ball girl last year. Contrary to the fan’s reaction in Michelsen’s case, however, the ball girl was in tears and shaking.
Wertheim said:
I’m not sure fan reaction ought to be whether there’s punishment or not. you got rules in place for a reason…”
Australian tennis player Perez demanded justice for Kato, who was immediately defaulted at the 2023 Roland Garros women’s doubles. She claimed that if the ruling depended on someone’s tears, it was ‘ridiculous’.
“I want justice for Miyu Kato. The fact we base a default on how much tears the person brings on is ridiculous,” Perez said.
Kato was disqualified with her teammate, Aldila Sutjiadi, and forfeited her prize money as well. However, she picked the mixed doubles title in the same year, lifting the trophy with German partner Tim Puetz 4-6, 6-4, 10-6.
Novak Djokovic faced a similar situation as Alex Michelsen but was defaulted by the same umpire
At the US Open 2020, Djokovic was defaulted from the tournament after he accidentally hit a line judge on the throat during his fourth-round match against Pablo Carreno Busta at Flushing Meadows. This happened while the Serb was trailing Carreno Busta. Aurelie Tourte, the umpire who allowed Michelsen to continue, defaulted Djokovic in 2020.
Andy Roddick opined that Michelsen should have faced the same fate as the Serb since the 20-year-old reacted like a default was imminent.
“If you fire one hard and hit a fan, kinda the same to me as an umpire. Action the same. One just way more unlucky. Michelsen reacted like he thought he was toast,” wrote Roddick in his X post.
In Alex Michelsen’s video, he was seen apologizing to the fan on the sidelines. Djokovic also pleaded before accepting his fate in 2020.
