In einer Welt, in der vorschnell geurteilt wird, ohne die Umstände zu berücksichtigen, sah sich auch Rafael Jódar nach seiner Auftaktniederlage bei den US Open heftiger Kritik von Fans ausgesetzt.
Der Spanier enttäuschte in der Erstrundenpartie gegen Yunchaokete Bu in New York zweifellos die Erwartungen. Doch ein Rückschlag mit 19 Jahren – in seiner ersten echten Saison auf der großen Tour – ist absolut normal. Im Internet entschieden sich dennoch etliche Nutzer dafür, mit dem Finger auf ihn zu zeigen.
Jódar ist erst 19 Jahre alt
In der jüngsten Folge des Podcasts „Nothing Major“ nahmen die ehemaligen ATP-Asse John Isner und Steve Johnson Jódar in Schutz. "He's only 19. It's all so new to him. I think it's crazy that... maybe we should slow down a little bit. In a couple of years, no one will remember this match, when he's actually fighting to win Grand Slams, at least in my opinion. He's pretty good. He hasn't been on the tour that long. He probably did nothing but wait, wait and wait until he could play his first match at the US Open. It took him forever to get into the match," sagte Isner.
Johnson erklärte: "I told him that sooner or later he would run out of energy. Sooner or later he would have to play a bad match. It's really a shame that he played his worst match of the year at the US Open. It was inevitable that sooner or later he would have a bad day, and that day came. It was a shame that it happened at the US Open, where he was the number 12 seed, a player who should aim to get to the second week and even beyond.
But in this match he had to deal with a lot of difficulties. He changed rackets something like five or six times in the first set alone. He just couldn't find the right tension. He had a bad day, and sooner or later it had to happen."