Spanish tennis pro Rafael Jodar was involved in another controversy with a ball person, this time swearing at one during his match at the Shanghai Masters on Wednesday, October 14.
“Give me the f***ing towel, damn it!” Jodar, 20, barked at a ball boy after losing consecutive break points while facing the Netherlands’ Botic Van De Zandschulp. Video of the incident quickly began circulating on social media.
Jodar was immediately given a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct by chair umpire Jimmy Pinoargote. When he expressed his shock over the warning, Pinoargote replied, “I can’t repeat it, you know what you said, I can’t repeat it now. Not like that, we don’t talk to them like that.’
“We’ve been playing for an hour and ten minutes, man,” Jodar said. “He goes away for a second, I say something and you already give me a warning. It’s unbelievable, you can really tell you’re not on the court.”
The incident on Wednesday comes after Jodar was accused in May of pushing a ball girl out of his way at the French Open while returning from a trip to the bathroom. Footage later showed that he did not make contact with the ball girl, who seemed to trip on her own while trying to get out of the tennis star’s way.
“I didn’t touch her,” he later insisted at a press conference. “No, no, no. I could never do that. I didn’t push her or anything. I was telling my dad to give me the things that he was going to give me after a toilet break when I was coming back.”
Jodar continued, “She was in the middle, so I think she was trying to get out of the way. She was going backwards, but I think she, like, fell, but not because I pushed her.”
“It was right behind her,” he explained. “So when she was walking backwards, she fell with that. I appreciate all the work that the ball kids are doing. I know it’s difficult with the heat and the conditions to stay there …. I could never, you know, push a ball kid.”
Two months later, Jodar faced more criticism after slipping and accidentally hitting a ball girl with his racket at Wimbledon. The ball girl handed the racket back to him, and he took it, with fans noticing he did not appear to show any gratitude for the gesture.
Just weeks later at the Citi Open, a ball boy accidentally hit Jodar with a tennis ball. Jodar was seen glaring at him after as the crowd erupted in laughter behind him.
Jodar ultimately defeated Van De Zandschulp, 31, on Wednesday, advancing to the tournament quarterfinals where he will face Norway’s Casper Ruud on Friday, October 16.
