"Hope they have trouble falling asleep" - Gilles Simon & Pam Shriver slam Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes Tormo after French Open default controversy

Former players Gilles Simon and Pam Shriver have slammed Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes Tormo for demanding the disqualification of their opponents during the women's doubles third round at the 2023 French Open.

Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes Tormo progressed to the fourth round after their opponents, Miyu Kato and Aldila Sutjiadi, were defaulted because Kato accidentally hit a ball girl on the head.

Kato and Sutjiadi initially received just a warning for the incident. But Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo weren't happy with the decision, and urged the chair umpire to default the opponents.

Chair umpire Alexandre Juge told them that "she (Kato) didn't do it on purpose" and that "she (the ball girl) didn't get injured," but that didn't convince Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo. They kept pressing Juge and said that the ball girl was crying.

The supervisor was eventually called to the court and Kato and Sutjiadi were disqualified, which prompted a strong reaction from the tennis world on social media.

Former World No. 6 Gilles Simon reacted furiously on Twitter.

"When you claim the disqualification of the opposing team when you haven't even seen the ball sent. I dare to hope that they will have a little trouble falling asleep anyway. As for the decision itself... arbitration in all that is most stupid," Simon wrote.

Bouzkova, interestingly enough, was the winner of the WTA Sportsmanship Award in 2020, which caught the eye of former doubles World No. 3 Pam Shriver.

"Here is a list of recent WTA Sportsmanship award winners. Will today’s events make 2020 the only time Bouzkova wins award?" Shriver wrote on Twitter.

Gilles Simon on Rafael Nadal: "But you still have to be able to physically go play, run; if you can't do it, it's a career stoppage"

Rafael Nadal and Gilles Simon at the BNP Paribas Open

Gilles Simon recently talked about when Rafael Nadal was likely to be back on the court. Nadal underwent arthroscopic surgery to check his left psoas muscle on Friday, June 2. He subsequently stated that he was expected to be out of action for the next five months, which means he is unlikely to compete again this year.

In response to that news, Simon said that Nadal would return only when he felt he was ready to do so.

"There really isn't a strategy. The strategy is his body. The second he can play, he plays. It's not him who decides, and Nadal arrives at the end, as Federer did before," Simon told L'Equipe.

Nadal had also recently stated that 2024 would probably be the last year of his career, but Gilles Simon claimed that would depend entirely on the 22-time Slam champion's body.

"He will try, train, and the advantage he has is that he knows that even at 70%, he can win Roland. But you still have to be able to physically go play, run. If you can't do it, it's a career stoppage and that's how it is," Simon added.