Jódar and the management of his first unexpected great defeat: why so harsh with him?

Rafa Jódar was the protagonist in the world of tennis yesterday. The problem is that we are not used to seeing his prominence arise from a loss: the man from Madrid made victory a habit, setting records for precocity and burning stages at lightning speed. For this reason and more, seeing him lose in the first round of the US Open 2026 left us with a somewhat strange feeling, as if we were witnessing something unprecedented that we could never have imagined, slightly shaking the expectations that had formed around his figure.

He only won four games... and he looked empty. Without energy. A shadow of the Rafa who, even when his best version wasn’t available, clung to the court like the best veterans. Therefore, the victory of Buyunchaokete impacted us even more: the form was more notable than the substance. If we add the opportunity in the form of a draw that presented itself to Rafa, the inconsistency of many of the title contenders... the feeling of missed opportunity mixes with the intrinsic sadness of defeat.

Should we be worried about Rafa Jódar's fall in the US Open?

The script of the match, if we adhere to the purely tennis-related aspects, uncovered deficiencies in Jódar's tennis that we already knew from previous encounters: the lack of variations at such an early stage of his development as a player, a lack of adaptability to find different plans if his baseline shots are not working (a consequence, in a way, of the first maxim)... perhaps no match had showcased it so brutally, but it revealed nothing we didn’t already know (and it became more complicated to watch because of that lack of fight we mentioned before, surely a product of the mental exhaustion from such a tough tour).

🎾 Rafa Jódar, after the tough first-round loss at the @usopen 

❌ "I didn't know that the opponent was going to be different from the initial one, but that's not an excuse"

🦾 "I always think about myself and what to prepare for tournaments"

📻 #PartidazoCOPE pic.twitter.com/LpdMuiuwZF

— El Partidazo de COPE (@partidazocope) September 2, 2026

This is where that necessary context comes after a loss like yesterday's, a context that itself answers the big question that many are asking. With just eight months of mileage on the circuit, it is normal that Rafa is not a product that is even remotely complete. That Jódar stumbles in the first rounds of tournaments is normal. That Jódar yields to lower-ranked rivals from time to time is normal.

What is not normal, of course, is to find yourself among the top ten of the year in your first season as a professional. What is not normal, of course, is to win at least one match in ten consecutive tournaments at 19 years old. What is not normal, of course, is to break into the top-15 when twelve months ago you were outside the top-300. All these milestones have followed one after another so rapidly that even Rafa himself hasn’t had time to reflect on the nature of his successes; neither have we, fixated on imagining him lifting a Grand Slam that does not yet belong to him.

The greatest also had matches to forget, duels in which nothing went right, where the racket feels like a baseball bat and the ball never goes where your mind tells you. Greatness lies, of course, in how you rise from these situations, how you use them to find tools, gradually, that allow you to seek shortcuts beyond just playing beautifully. How long did it take the best to learn all this? You won't find anyone who achieved it in eight months from their first Grand Slam, at least not across all surfaces. 

In a world like today's, where many prefer to destroy rather than build, I break a lance in favor of Jódar.

A single blot does not stain a nearly pristine notebook in his first season as a professional.

He is among the top 10 of the year and is the player with the most victories of… pic.twitter.com/QBQRHh4eZA

— José Morón (@jmgmoron) September 2, 2026

And there lies the true lesson from Rafa Jódar's defeat yesterday: the abnormality of his growth has distorted our perception of even his greatest setbacks, and the balance (such a precious and complicated word to understand today) when valuing each performance in a tournament is the only way to analyze his evolution. The Madrid native's ship has sailed through stormy seas without a compass available, with poise, competence, and a maturity uncharacteristic of a green captain: a blow to his armor will not stop the journey toward his destination, no matter how loud it may sound. 

Ah: it would not be strange to imagine a scenario where Rafa struggles to maintain motivation, mental freshness, and physical explosiveness in the final stretch of the season. We have witnessed it with the best, most recently with Carlos Alcaraz: Jódar has been playing non-stop for eight months on the best stages in the world, when just a year ago he was heading to the United States to play Challengers in indoor venues. Nothing would happen if this occurs: it is part of an evolution curve that we must analyze without falling into extremes. With this in mind, continue to enjoy the show... and never, never forget the context of each fall.

This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Jódar y la gestión de su primera gran derrota inesperada: ¿por qué tan duros con él?