We live in an age where cameras are everywhere, and when someone starts throwing around accusations of wild behavior — y’know, like allegations of shoving a ball girl at the French Open — there will probably be some video evidence to prove or disprove that claim.
Well, lucky us, we have an example of this.
Spain’s Rafael Jodar had just won a five-set match over American Alex Michelsen, but the talk afterward had to do with claims that he shoved a ball girl.
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Spain’s Rafael Jodar denied claims that he shoved a ball girl during one of his French Open matches. (Susan Mullane-Imagn Images)
A reporter brought this up during his post-match press conference, and Jodar vehemently denied the claim.
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Jodar said that the ball girl simply tripped over a rolled-up tarp when he was walking by her, on his way to get something from his dad during a bathroom break (this sounds like something that would happen in Little League).
So, let’s look at the tape. He says he didn’t shove a girl who’s just there to chase tennis balls and whatnot, and this reporter thought it looked enough like he did to ask him about it.
To the tape!
By which I mean social media clip…
Yeah… unless he used the Force to do it, I’m going to go ahead and say he didn’t push her.
I think this is simply a matter of timing and perspective. It’s clear that Jodar never actually makes contact with his hand, but the timing of the play and the difficulty of judging depth make it look possible — at least on first watch.
If you re-watch it even one more time, it’s clear as day, in this humble and handsome writer’s opinion, that he absolutely did not push her.
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Rafael Jodar returns a shot during his match against Alex Michelsen at Stade Roland Garros. (Susan Mullane-Imagn Images)
Which raises the question: Why didn’t the reporter watch this a little closer before putting Jodar on blast and making him defend himself?
We can give the benefit of the doubt and assume that not all the angles were available yet or hadn’t been posted online. But there was at least one angle clear enough to make the reporter think we had an ol’-fashioned ball girl pushin’ on them clay courts at Roland-Garros.
