Rafael Jodar outlasted Pablo Carreño Busta 3-6, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 at Wimbledon after the match was held over from the previous evening. The 19-year-old was down two sets to one when play resumed, then finished the job the next morning and moved into the third round.
“I knew I had to get my body ready for the next day, because obviously I was down,” Jodar said after the match. “But I believed in my chances. I believed that I could come back and win the fourth set and then the fifth set.”
Jodar resets overnight
The delay changed the shape of the contest. Jodar said, “I started pretty well this morning,” and added, “I knew the conditions were different, so I had to adapt to that, as well.” He also said, “I think I did a great job when we stopped the match last night until I stepped on the court this morning.”
He arrived at Wimbledon with little grass-court mileage, calling it his first Wimbledon and his first grass-court event. That made the turnaround more than a matter of scoreline recovery; it also asked him to handle a surface he was still learning while the match itself had already stretched across two days.
Shintaro Mochizuki awaits
Jodar’s next match is against Shintaro Mochizuki in the third round. The result also extended a week that has already included a run to the quarter-finals at Roland Garros last month, and it gave him a clean answer after a night when he trailed and had to return to finish the match.
That was the pressure point in the story: Carreño Busta had the lead when play stopped, but Jodar handled the restart better and turned a suspended match into a third-round place. The only question left from his own comments is how much the overnight break changed the match beyond the fact that he had to adapt fast and start fresh.
