Controversy seems to go hand in hand with Rafael Jodar at the 2026 French Open. While the 19-year-old keeps on making giant strides, off-court issues seem to keep centering around him at Roland Garros. A few days after footage of him seemingly pushing away a ball girl went viral, a new video has come up on social media, showing the young Spaniard not taking notice of the young mascot.

During his walkout in his fourth-round match against Pablo Carreno Busta, Jodar walked out on the court with a face full of concentration and determination. However, while entering the court, he was supposed to hold the hand of a young mascot girl and go on the court together, as is the custom in these matches. The video circulating on social media shows Jodar walking straight ahead on the court, not holding the young girl’s hand.

However, another video shows a different side of Jodar, where he was seen respectfully shaking hands with both mascots at the net during the coin toss before the match. This indicated that the prior incident might have been a result of miscommunication, or that Jodar simply didn’t remember.

There was a recent instance of an ATP player seemingly ignoring a mascot kid, Luciano Darderi, at the Italian Open. Back then, Darderi had clarified that he was completely in the zone, which led him to forget to abide by court traditions. Given that he is playing in his first fourth round in a Major at 19 years old, one can only assume it was almost a similar incident with Jodar as well.

While Jodar shaking hands with the mascot later might have softened the blow, this is not the first time Jodar has been accused of impolite behavior in court, as seen in social media videos. Video that was taken in his third round match against Alex Michelsen, where it looked like the young Spaniard had pushed a ball girl with his hand as he was going for a toilet break.

However, later in his post-match press conference, Jodar vehemently denied pushing the girl, stating he was talking with his father in the stands, and the girl seemed to trip on the rain covers kept at the back of the court at the same time. Later, other camera angles exonerated the Spaniard, showing that the two events occurring simultaneously created an optical illusion that led people to believe the ball girl was pushed.

Despite such social media and off-court skirmishes, Jodar has been one of the revelations on the ATP Tour during the clay season and continues to show great form at Roland Garros.

Rafael Jodar Has One of the Best Clay-Court Records This Season

Making his ATP Tour debut this season, Rafael Jodar was under everyone’s radar despite being one of the young players to have qualified for the Next Gen ATP Finals last year. The Spaniard did not have any exemplary results on the hard courts in the early part of the year, but ended the initial part of the season with a decent third-round run at the Miami Open as a qualifier.

However, once the Spaniard set foot on clay, it was a different matter altogether, as he won the title in his first clay-court ATP event in Marrakech, winning against the likes of Tomas Machac, Alexandre Muller, and Marco Trungelliti. He followed that performance with a semifinal run at the Barcelona Open, where he lost to eventual champion Arthur Fils in a close three-set battle. Jodar kept his good form at the Masters 1000 level as well, with a quarterfinal run in Madrid, where he lost to an unstoppable-looking Jannik Sinner. His performances catapulted his rankings on the ATP charts, earning him a seeding at Rome, where he reached the quarterfinals as well before being knocked out by Luciano Darderi.

The Spaniard has reached at least the quarterfinal stage of every clay-court event played in 2026, including Roland Garros, where he has already shown he has the stamina and endurance to play five-set tennis on clay, winning his last two matches against Alex Michelsen and Pablo Carreno Busta in five-setters. However, he will have his biggest challenge in the quarterfinals, where he will face second-seeded Alexander Zverev.