Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes Tormo's run at the 2023 French Open has come to an end.
Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo were in action against Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez in the women's doubles quarterfinals on Tuesday, June 6. The Czech-Spanish pair lost 7-5, 6-3 to exit the tournament.
This quarterfinal had added attention from fans following the events of their Round of 16 match, where No. 16 seeds Miyu Kato and Aldila Sutjiadi were disqualified. Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo earned the wrath of tennis fans after they surrounded the match official and argued for their opponents to be defaulted.
Since that controversial match, Sorribes Tormo has faced back-to-back defeats. A day before her doubles loss, she went down to Beatriz Haddad Maia in the women's singles.
One fan took pleasure in Sorribes Tormo's twin losses and chalked it down to karma.
"Karma is alive and well. 2 losses in two days for Tormo," a fan said.
Another fan praised Melichar-Martinez and Perez for doing "God's work."
"They did God's work! Well done Ellen and Nicole," the fan opined.
One user praised Melichar-Martinez and Perez for being 'careful' with the tennis balls, in light of Miyu Kato's action in the previous match.
"I guess the most loved doubles pair of the tournament. Well done, and congratulations! Thank you for being careful with the balls. The other pair focuses more on mishits when the ball is not in play," their tweet read.
Here are a few more fan reactions to Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo's women's doubles exit at Roland Garros:
Sara Sorribes Tormo defends herself and Marie Bouzkova following criticism surrounding Miyu Kato's disqualification
Sixteenth seeds Miyu Kato and Aldila Sutjiadi exited the 2023 French Open women's doubles in controversial fashion on June 4.
After the fourth game in the second set of the Round of 16 contest, Kato hit a ball girl on the other side of the net while attempting to pass her the ball. The chair umpire initially gave the Japanese-Indonesian pair a warning, but Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes Tormo then got involved, which eventually led to Kato's disqualification.
Sorribes Tormo, however, claimed on Monday that the decision came from the match officials and that she and Bouzkova played no part in it.
“First of all, it's a very bad situation that happened yesterday. Also, for Marie and for me it's tough to have all this kind of things that people are saying. It's not easy because the only thing we've done yesterday was going to the referee and explain him what happened,” she said at a press conference.
“So, first of all, we were saying that the ball kid was crying because we were scared, because we were, 'Oh, something happened.' Then we were saying that the ball was direct because he didn't saw the ball. All the rest the decision was taken by the supervisor, and I think it's not our thing or we haven't done anything bad,” Sara Sorribes Tormo added.