Rafa Jódar melts Kovacevic in his debut at Roland Garros | Tennis | Sports

It is not the Costa Brava, but This is Paristhe majority of those who today are smeared with cream proudly pray, protecting themselves as best they can from the punishing sun with glasses, caps, towels, umbrellas or whatever, anything goes. Every man for himself! That’s right: fire falls. “There, there it is! Remaining…”, says a twenty-year-old Spanish woman whose height is high enough to distinguish the silhouette of Rafael Jódar in the background, among the thousand heads that surround court 12 of the Roland Garros complex and that stretch their necks to the maximum, all giraffes on this Monday of heat – about 32º, but a much superior feeling – and of presentation: with all of you, Parisians, that is.

And how the boy shakes the ball. The French public discovers it, a direct witness for the first time of how this young man spends his time who, as Carlos Alcaraz already said, plays however he wants. “No respect.” That is, without fear. It doesn’t matter if this is Roland Garros, or before that the Godó, the Caja Mágica or the Foro Italico. He, to his own; that is, enjoy—the motto alcaraziano par excellence, even though he continues without a single gesture of joy—and grow, and for now there is no greater pressure than what he imposes on himself, he often repeats. Jódar plays inside a sealed bubble and, of course, for now he is not doing too badly. Yes sir, this is how you approach a debut. Aleksandar Kovacevic melts to the rhythm of ice cream: 6-1, 6-0 and 6-4, in 1h 34m.

In line with what has been stated so far, fang and more fang. Lashes to give and give, and the American (27 years old and 67th in the world) practically all the time at his mercy, suffering, trying with great difficulty – he is left with a miserable option of breaking – and neutralized at the slightest sign that he can raise his head. Pimp! Pam! Boom! That sequence and that tennis that you like because there is no contemplation, but permanent initiative. The Madrid native does not hide his letters, on the contrary: these are mine, here I am and whoever he wants, let him come for me; 19 years old, rookie, but it will be equal. On that terrain of competing bare-chested, things are working for him for now.

The first notch in the Bois de Boulogne is accompanied by those rays that cross the bodies and the particularities of the track, one of the secondary ones, then narrowness and everyone on tiptoe, unless you are one of the privileged ones who has managed to place their ass on the cement. Alcaraz knows about this, who recorded his first victory in the tournament in the same setting; , the sun also beat down hard, people gathered together – perhaps not so much, but also in abundance – and the Murcian had more debate against Bernabé Zapata, who at 29 said so far and he has left it. The Valencian will be able to boast that he scratched a set from the titan. Not so Kovacevic, who leaves empty-handed, wrapped in cold towels. What is going to be done? Arms akimbo.

Jódar’s father, on the other hand, is surrounded and watched by the crowd, as if he were one more in the fourth row. Well, son, that’s it. He approves with that prudence that characterizes him — about a middle-class family that lives in the Chamartín neighborhood — and that dialectical exchange that is always well economized. Why three or four sentences if it can be resolved in five words? Between them, a couple of glances are enough and although the rival gives the last blows in the final stretch, in vain, he closes this first episode with conviction. Kovacevic had just reached the semifinals in Hamburg, although like most of his compatriots, he is far from the profile earthly. May and dirt, rashes for Americans. Happy ending, and Australian James Duckworth (34 years old and 82nd) ​​awaits on Wednesday, benefiting from the abandonment of Gabriel Diallo.

He progresses, while favorite theorists fall from his side of the table; in quotes, of course. One of them was Taylor Fritz, ninth in the world but in low hours, and the other was the Czech Jiri Lehecka, upset early by the Asturian Pablo Carreño (6-3, 7-6(3) and 6-3, in 1h 57m). Clay and the craft, so important. The double pass is not added to that of the Cantabrian Cristina Bucsa, who arrived just and left early after falling against the Swiss Susan Bandecchi (6-4, 2-6 and 6-4).