Rafael Jodar‘s ongoing shoelace issue has persisted up to his debut at the Laver Cup, and the online reactions indicate that fans have reached their limit as well. Just three games into his match against Alexander Bublik in London, Jodar was forced back to his chair after his laces gave way while chasing down a drop shot, reigniting a storyline that has now trailed him through several tournaments this season. 

Jodar’s laces snapped twice during the deciding set of his comeback win over Denis Shapovalov at the Cincinnati Open, a moment that visibly frustrated the Canadian as Jodar clawed back from 5-1 down. Similar hiccups had already surfaced at the Washington Open and the Canadian Open earlier in the summer.

After the Bublik match, Jodar attributed it to his aggressive hard court sliding style for the breaking of laces. 

“Es por cómo resbalo, especialmente en pistas de cemento,” he said, which translates to “It’s because of how I slide, especially on hard courts,” especially when hitting his forehand or closing toward the net, is what keeps causing the laces to give out.

However, the delay did little to disrupt his performance. The Spaniard defeated Bublik 6-2, 6-3 in just 1 hour and 24 minutes, the most dominant singles performance of the opening day. It gave Team Europe a 2-1 edge, and then Carlos Alcaraz and Jakub Mensik pushed that lead to 3-1 with a doubles win to seal the day.

Fans split between exhaustion, sympathy, and outright mockery

Fans were disappointed on Jodar as the shoelace incident made another appearance. One reaction cut straight to frustration with the player himself. “Jodar is pathetic, your time will come,” they wrote. 

One fan questioned why the criticism gets aimed at Jodar so personally in the first place. 

“I don’t know why there’s so much antipathy toward him, just because he destroyed the sloth?” they wrote, a comment that drew a pointed reply from another user. 

“Dislike for the attitudes, but talent in abundance,” the response read, suggesting the issue for some has less to do with the shoelaces themselves and more to do with how Jodar carries himself on court. He has had few altercations with ball boys and girls as well, which has further harmed his image. 

Others were simply exhausted by the recurring nature of the delay itself. 

“Wtf, still this story of his with the shoelaces???? It’s not possible that he’s gonna make the ATP change the rule,” reflecting the same fatigue that has followed Jodar since the original Cincinnati incident.

A separate reaction took a more sarcastic angle, contrasting how tennis treats different kinds of mid-match stoppages. 

“Athlete with a cramp? Screw ’em, keep the game going, and if they can’t, bye!” the post read. “Problem with your sneaker lace? Go ahead and stop, sit down, change the lace, and take all the time you need, no rush!” 

Others on the internet echoed the same level of tiredness, with some noting it to be a “gimmick” and some asking whether Adidas should use Kevlar laces in the coming season if the trend is to persist. Jodar has sought to neutralize some of that scoffing himself in recent weeks, walking onto court with a large clear plastic bag containing an embarrassingly large number of replacement pairs of shoes, a visual trick he used to demonstrate the reality of the problem – and not a ploy to stall.