En un mundo cada vez más propenso a juzgar con rapidez y sin tener en cuenta las circunstancias, Rafael Jódar también tuvo que soportar las críticas desmedidas de algunos aficionados tras su derrota en el debut del US Open.
El español no estuvo a la altura de las expectativas en su partido de primera ronda ante Yunchaokete Bu en Nueva York, pero un tropiezo a los 19 años, durante su primera temporada completa en el circuito de máximo nivel, entra dentro de la normalidad. En internet, sin embargo, varios usuarios optaron por señalarle.
Jódar solo tiene 19 años
En el último episodio del pódcast Nothing Major, los extenistas de la ATP John Isner y Steve Johnson salieron en defensa de Jódar. "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," afirmó Isner.
Johnson añadió: "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."