Rafael Jodar found himself at the centre of another storm at the French Open ahead of his fourth-round encounter. The Spaniard, while stepping out onto Court Suzanne Lenglen, failed to take notice of a young tournament mascot waiting to walk out with him.
Videos of the incident, which have since drawn strong reactions on social media, shows Jodar walking past the young girl who held her hand out for him. In all fairness, the teenager’s ultra-focused look in the hallway suggests that him not noticing the young girl during the walk-out was a genuine mistake more than anything else but fans online were not impressed.
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One of the fans who shared the video of Jodar walking out wrote: “Every time, Rafael Jodar surprises me more. Poor little girl”. Others reacting to the video also “ill-mannered” and “rude”. There was a section that defended him, saying it was highly unlikely that he would ignore the young girl on purpose.
The episode assumed significance as it came days after another video involving Jodar and a ball kid had gone viral on social media. In the short clip, the Spaniard appeared to purportedly push a ball girl out of his way as he stepped out the court.
The incident was later revealed to be misconstrued. Other angles showed that the 19-year-old was only tossing a bottle at his team in frustration and the ball kid had actually slipped on the tarp while returning to her position close to the backboard fence. Jodar also addressed the incident in his press interactions, saying he would never behave in such a manner. Nevertheless, the incident had gotten the intermet talking about acceptable behavior from players on court.
Rafael Jodar tested early in French Open debut
Amid the unwarranted attention, Rafael Jodar has put together a solid run at this year’s French Open. The Spaniard began his campaign in style, with a dominant straight-sets win over Aleksandar Kovacevic.
In the second round, the 19-year-old was tested by James Dcukworth but managed to come through in four sets. His sternest test came against Alex Michelsen in third round when he came back from going two sets to one down to close out a titanic five-set win.
The Spaniard had come into the tournament after a career-best clay season. He had made the quarterfinals at Masters 1000 events in Rome and Madrid. He had also lifted the trophy at the Grand Prix Hassan II, hit first title on the Tour in April.
Edited by Vedant Chandel