Maria Bouzkova addresses online ‘bullying’ she has faced over Miyu Kato incident

Marie Bouzkova says the scrutiny and “bullying” she has been receiving since the Miyu Kato incident is “something I don’t wish on anyone.” In the French Open doubles round-of-16, Bouzkova and her doubles partner Sara Sorribes Tormo won after Kato and Aldila Sutjiadi got defaulted. Midway through the second set, Kato inadvertently hit a ball girl but she just received a warning and the match appeared to be set to continue. But then, Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo complained that the ball girl was crying and the supervisor was requested on the court. Kato and Sutjiadi ended up defaulted and, just as it was happening, Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo were caught laughing on the bench. That photo went viral and since then it hasn’t been easy for Bouzkova on social media or anywhere else.

“I would say there are still emotional days even now where you’ll share something and so many people will post hate about that incident. It’s still pretty hard for me because I’ve never been in such a situation where I feel like I’m the bad person,” Bouzkova told David Kane of tennis.com.

Bouzkova on what really happened in the viral photo

Addressing the incident, Bouzkova claimed that she “messed up” something while speaking in Spanish with Sorribes Tormo. According to Bouzkova, they laughed over that and not because their opponents were being defaulted. 

“It’s something I don’t wish on anyone. It’s hard for us athletes. We are exposed on social media and it’s so easy to misinterpret when something goes viral, and that’s something we don’t have much influence on. Since that moment, I’ve been a little more distant from social media because that’s just a war you can’t win. On social media, there’s always going to be a person getting bullied,” Bouzkova said.

Also, Bouzkova indicated that she was told that what happened warranted a default.

“We went to the referee after the match and he told us that the match couldn’t have ended any other way, which is hard for a lot of people to accept, and he told us that if anyone has any questions, they can talk to him. But what tennis fan can go directly to the referee of Roland Garros? He’s not on Instagram,” Bouzkova said.