Jodar Is Warned for Swearing at a Ball Kid, Then Completes His Third Shanghai Comeback

Rafael Jodar is having the week of his season in Shanghai, and on Wednesday it acquired a formal warning. A set down to Botic van de Zandschulp in the fourth round, the 20-year-old Spaniard lost a break point at the start of the second set, demanded his towel from a ball kid in language the chair umpire understood, and was given a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct. He then did the two things that make the story: he argued, lost the argument, calmed down, and won.

What exactly did Jodar do to earn the warning?

He swore at the wrong person at the wrong volume. SuperSport reports Jodar had fired a shot long to lose the break point, after dropping the first set on a tiebreak, when he shouted his towel demand in Spanish. Chair umpire Jimmy Pinoargote, who understood every word, issued the warning for unsportsmanlike conduct under the ATP rulebook. AP, in its Shanghai roundup, records the same warning against the 12th seed, which is the detail that separates this from a fan-clip rumour: the sanction is in the official match record, not just on social video.

What did the umpire tell him when he argued?

That the route to the towel runs through the chair. SuperSport reports Jodar complained that his request was being ignored, and Pinoargote answered that he understood, but could not excuse the language, and that Jodar should ask him, and he would ask the ball kid. Asked what he had said, Jodar was told the umpire could not repeat it, and that he knew what he had said. It is a small, complete piece of officiating: the complaint about service speed was heard, the method of making it was punished, and the correct channel was spelled out in front of the crowd.

Did the warning actually change anything on court?

TennisUpToDate reports it did, immediately and measurably. Jodar spoke to the ball crew in a calmer tone for the rest of the match, converted his third break point in that same game, and took the second set on his sixth set point after holding off a fightback. The decider was a double-break runaway, 6-2, for a 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-2 win. AP notes it was his third straight victory from a set down in Shanghai, after similar comebacks against Thiago Agustin Tirante and Jiri Lehecka, and it puts him into a fourth Masters 1000 quarter-final, all since April.

Why are fans comparing this with Djokovic?

Because the same fortnight produced an unsanctioned version. Tennis365 points out that Novak Djokovic was visibly spiky with ball kids during his China Open run, was called out for it on Eurosport France by Nicolas Mahut, and never received the warning Jodar got in Shanghai. The comparison is not proof of favouritism, and this desk is not treating it as one. It is, though, the reason a routine code violation is travelling: a 20-year-old ranked outside the top 160 in January was pulled up for conduct a 24-time major champion was criticised for, but not sanctioned over, days earlier. Conduct rows have been Shanghai’s second draw all week, from Wu Yibing calling Zverev’s behaviour unnecessary to the spectator claims around Zverev and the practice court.

What is at stake for Jodar from here?

A place at the season-ending finals, improbably. TennisUpToDate reports the win lifts him to 11th in the Race to Turin, with Jannik Sinner’s season over and a place opening up, the same absence that settled the year-end number one race in Zverev’s favour. Next he faces Casper Ruud, who came through when Felix Auger-Aliassime retired hurt, for a semi-final place. The conduct question travels with him: TennisUpToDate lists earlier ball-crew flashpoints this year, none sanctioned, which makes Wednesday’s warning the first formal mark against a player whose tennis, this week, has needed no help from his temper. Shanghai has already seen one favourite’s week end in a conduct ruling, when Medvedev was disqualified at the China Open a week earlier in Beijing, and Jodar’s task now is to make sure his tournament is remembered for the comebacks instead. His quarter-final opponent’s side of the draw, and Zverev’s own ankle-managed run, will decide how long that chance lasts.