A Japanese doubles player was disqualified from Roland Garros on Sunday after accidentally hitting a ball girl during her third-round match.

Miyu Kato and her doubles partner Aldila Sutjiadi, of Indonesia, were ejected from the tournament after an apparently innocuous incident turned more serious when the ball girl began sobbing.

Early in the second set Kato was positioned close to the net and carelessly flicked a ball towards the ball girl at the back of the court. Her action seemed to be an attempt to pass the ball to where her opponents would be serving the next game.

However, the ball girl, who had a ball in each hand, could not get out of the way quickly enough and was caught on the back of her neck.

Umpire Alexandre Juge gave Kato a warning for the offence, but the situation escalated when her opponents, Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes Tormo, alerted him that the ball girl was crying. Bouzkova was even heard suggesting that the girl was bleeding.

The pair continued lobbying for Kato and Sutjiadi to be defaulted and, as things got more heated on Court 14, at least one spectator shouted out: “disgrace”.

Soon the tournament referee, Remy Azemar, was called to the court and, after conferring with the umpire and the crying ball girl, disqualified Kato and Sutjiadi.

It prompted boos from the crowd, while Sorribes Tormo and Bouzkova were seen sniggering in their chairs. The tournament supervisor, Wayne McKewen, referred to Novak Djokovic’s default at the US Open in 2020 – when a ball he hit in anger caught a line judge on the throat – as setting a precedent for this type of disqualification.

“Even though you don’t mean it, you’re still responsible for that action,” McKewen told Kato. “It’s very similar to what happened in New York with Djokovic. He hit the ball backwards. It wasn’t intentional but it doesn’t matter. If a ball hits them and they are injured, you are responsible.”

The grand slam rulebook states that “players shall not violently, dangerously or with anger hit, kick or throw a tennis ball”.

Kato apologised to the ball girl on Twitter, saying: “It was completely unintentional.

“As a result, I am penalized by RG (Roland Garros) by forfeiting my prize money and points. I appreciate all your continued support.”

Sania Mirza, speaking on Sony Sports Network’s Extraa Serve, made her displeasure clear: “As a tennis player I don’t want to win matches like that. I want to win fair and square... And this is about Asian tennis. To have a Japanese and an Indonesian girl playing for a quarter final berth. Sutjiadi is the only Indonesian playing at the French Open... It is very unfortunate.”

Our Bureau & The Daily Telegraph in London