Rafael Jodar criticised for his ‘inexcusable’ behaviour at the Shanghai Masters

Top tennis coach Brad Gilbert and former Grand Slam semi-finalist Andrea Petkovic have now discussed Jodar’s behaviour during the latest episode of ‘The Big T Podcast‘.

Brad Gilbert says Rafael Jodar’s behaviour towards ‘vulnerable’ ball kids is inexcusable

“Let’s move on to Rafa Jodar and just speak about him for a little while, because he has now had a few run ins, I’m trying to be careful about this word, because during the French Open, there was a video where it seemed like he pushed a ball girl. I really have to say about this, that’s why I didn’t want to really bring it up, that video looked bad, but from a different angle, you could see that he didn’t do anything to the ball girl, that’s number one,” said Petkovic.

“However, there have been a few situations, BG [Brad Gilbert], with Rafa Jodar, where our producer, Gary, wrote into our running order: Is Rafa Jodar the villain of the ATP Tour? What’s your answer to that?”

“First of all, what an amazing first year the guy has had on tour. He’s got a great chance to make the year-end championships. He’s got a team of one, just his dad; he doesn’t have anyone else. But the reason why Gary could say that about a villain, there are a lot of things that happen on a court, but one thing that is inexcusable, if you’ve ever been a ball kid and know that some of these kids are nervous doing it, you can never lose it on a ball kid,” said Gilbert.

“Ok, you don’t exactly know what the exact ramifications of what happened in Paris, the one where he literally snapped about not getting his towel and swearing at a ball kid, to me, is inexcusable.

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“I understand players lose it; we’ve seen Medvedev lose it a lot, players snapping. That should be off-limits. He should literally watch that video, learn from it; if he gets mad, it should never have anything to do with the ball person again, because I feel like that’s controllable. Losing and snapping at an umpire sometimes, or a decision on court, yourself, opponent… Not a ball person, who is very vulnerable.”

Gilbert wasn’t impressed by Jodar’s behaviour whatsoever, although Petkovic was willing to show him more ‘grace’, given the Spaniard has only just turned 20 and is new to the tour.

“Most of the tournaments still work with kids, so it is a very bad look when you, I don’t want to say attack, it’s not like he physically attacked a kid, but when you snap at a kid, because they are children,” she said.

“I don’t want to defend it; the one thing I try to keep in mind is he’s 19 years old. He’s been thrown into the circus. One year ago, he didn’t even have ball kids; he was playing little Challenger tournaments where he probably had to get his own balls. So I give him a little grace, but it can’t continue to happen.”

Jodar has been warned not to make the mistake again and has promised he won’t. Whether he can keep that promise remains to be seen. Fans will keep a close eye on Jodar’s behaviour over the coming months as he continues chasing an ATP Finals spot.

Rafael Jodar is in line to make his ATP Finals debut this year

The 20-year-old currently occupies the last ATP Finals qualification spot. He leads Alex de Minaur by 279 points and Novak Djokovic by 319 points. With 1,500 points up for grabs in Vienna/Basel and Paris, Jodar still has work to do before he can book his flights to Turin.

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But even if he misses out on ATP Finals qualification, he can still be proud of a stellar breakthrough season. Looking to finish the year on a high, Jodar will return to action at the Swiss Indoors in Basel, which begins on Monday, October 26.

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