Karma is alive and well!
When something is taken away from you without rhyme and reason, it can hurt beyond repair. Something similar happened with Japan’s Miyu Kato at this year’s French Open, when she was defaulted from the women’s doubles event after she unintentionally hit a ballgirl kid on the other side of the court who later started crying.
Although within the rules what happened to Kato could probably be justified, it was a case of missing common sense that manifested in the worst sort of brutality for her and her partner Aldila Sutjiadi . Kato’s opponents, who were losing at that stage in the second set, went on to the umpire and asked that Kato and Sutjiadi should not only be given a warning but be defaulted from the match as the ball kid was crying.
A default at a Grand Slam not only means that you lose the match, but it also results in the participant losing all their prize money up until that point along with ranking points gained at the event.
But as some people argued on the Internet when Kato’s opponents Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes Tormo lost their subsequent round and Sorribes Tormo also lost her next singles match in close fashion, karma is still alive.
In a final reconciliation package from God, Kato went on to win the mixed doubles title at Roland Garros along with her German partner Tim Puetz, in emotional scenes at Philippe Chatrier.
It isn’t easy to stay calm and poised when you know you deserve more than what you’ve dished for your efforts. It’s difficult to not show anger when circumstances have conspired to snatch away all the good from you.
However, in all her speeches, not once did Kato show retaliation for the decision she had to endure and only seemed to apologize to the ball kid, although admitting that the ordeal she had to go through was indeed a tough one personally.
As an audience member, it is heart rendering to see real stories such as these where the oppressed regain their due pride and respect. The Japanese are probably one of the most well-behaved populations on the face of this earth at the moment, bowing at every juncture and acknowledging everyone around them, with Kato having been the perfect role model for their country through this incident.
Interestingly, something of this sort had last taken place as recently as at the 2020 US Open where 22-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic was defaulted after he unintentionally hit the ball at a lineswoman.
Look at Djokovic now, he is arguably the greatest of all time in the tennis world having recently won his 22nd Grand Slam in Australia this year, a country where he was deported from in embarrassing fashion just last year in the Covid phase.
Karma is alive and well folks!