“I never touched her, I would never do that”: Rafael Jódar denies any contact with ballgirl after viral Roland-Garros video

Rafael Jódar had just survived four hours and sixteen minutes against Alex Michelsen, come back from two sets to one down to reach his first Grand Slam fourth round, and the questions in the press room kept arriving at the same place.

A clip from the match had begun circulating online, showing the 19-year-old Spaniard moving past a ballgirl at a changeover. The picture, depending on the read, looked like contact. He was asked to account for it in English. He was then asked to give the same account in Spanish, on the record, so the clarification would exist in both languages.

He gave essentially the same version twice.

“I finished the set and she was walking backwards,” Jódar said. “I was telling my dad to give me what he was going to give me after the toilet break. She was in the middle. I think she was trying to get out of the way.”

The court cover pictured as the guilty

The fall, in his telling, was caused not by him but by the court cover folded behind the baseline – the same kind of tarp on which the Belgian Alexander Blockx twisted his ankle in practice earlier this week and withdrew from the tournament before his first-round match. “She fell because there was a court cover behind her,” Jódar said. “Obviously I appreciate all the work the ballkids do – I know it’s difficult in this heat. I could never push a ballkid.”

Asked whether he had made any contact at all with his hands: “I never touched her. I would never do that.”

Everyone has their opinion, and they’ll say what they want. I’m giving my version, which is what I lived.

The Spanish version was longer because the questioner asked him to clear it up for the Spanish-speaking audience too, given how social media had been running with the image.

“In the image – I haven’t seen it – it probably doesn’t show very well,” Jódar said. “Everyone has their opinion, and they’ll say what they want. I’m giving my version, which is what I lived. I would never do anything to a ballgirl. I know what they go through. It’s very, very hot. I appreciate everything they do. I never touched her.”

The sensitivity around the question owes a great deal to recent tournament history. At Roland-Garros in 2023, the Japanese doubles player Miyu Kato was defaulted from the tournament after a ball she sent toward the back of the court struck a ballgirl in the neck. The contact was accidental, the rule was applied automatically, and the moment has remained a reference point at this tournament for how seriously any incident involving a ballkid is treated here.

Jódar next plays the 34-year-old Pablo Carreño Busta on Sunday, an all-Spanish round of 16.