Spaniard Jodar overcomes Budkov Kjaer to win US Open boys' crown
In a championship match that had a little bit of everything, including a 10-minute delay because of a ceremony next door, Spain’s Rafael Jodar showed absolutely nothing could faze him.
Rallying from a one-set deficit, the 17-year-old showed the steel and mental strength of a Grand Slam champion Saturday in the US Open boys' singles final.
With his penetrating groundstrokes and a serve that came up huge when it counted, the No. 12 seed outlasted top seed Nicolai Budkov Kjaer in a scintillating final set and grabbed a 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (1) victory in front of more than a thousand fans on Court 11 at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
It’s about time Spain produced a good male player, right?
“So I'm very happy, like, I'm in a dream right now,” Jodar said at his post-match press conference. “It was a battle. I want to congratulate also Nicolai for the tournament and for the match. It's been a pleasure to play a final against him. So yeah, I'm really proud of myself. I think all the work I've been doing this season, not only this season, just in general, in my whole life, has been showed here in this tournament.
"So, yeah, I'm very happy.”
The third set had loads of drama, as more and more spectators crowded the court. Each player had break points and converted at 3-all, leading to a 4-all tie. Then, after Jodar saved two more and took an advantage, he prepared to serve.
But it was that moment that, inexplicably and with poor timing, the ceremony to honour the girls' singles champion began on Court 12, with a very loud announcer making a speech.
Both players stopped playing and complained to the chair umpire Nick Flentie, and a referee was called to the court.
Neither player wanted to continue, so there was a 10-minute delay until the ceremony honoring girls champ Mika Stojsavljevic was finished. Jodar then won the point to hold for 5-4.
“It was, like, of course not normal, but in general, is, like, sports, it's tennis,” Jodar said. “That can happen, you know.”
With the disruptions over, both players kept holding serve until the super tiebreak, and it was there that the more experienced Budkov Kjaer unraveled.
He made several unforced errors to give Jodar a quick 6-1 edge, and then the Spaniard smacked two aces to make it 8-1.
Finally on match point, the Norwegian star floated a backhand long and Jodar collapsed in relief and joy.
Jodar, who had committed to enroll and play at the University of Virginia in January, played a very jittery first set, as Budkov Kjaer, the Wimbledon singles champion in July, broke twice and seemed in command.
“I had to change many things,” Jodar said. “The mentality, I think I wasn't playing very good in the important points of the games in the first set. When I finish the first set, I just thought that I had to believe in myself, I was in a final at U.S. Open.”
Jodar said he knew he had to return better, and serve better in the second set, and he certainly did.
At 2-all in the second set, Jodar played a terrific game to break, then ran off the last three games of the set to even the match.
Jodar had 26 winners in the match, to 13 for Budkov Kjaer.
“Tennis is a brutal sport,” said Budkov Kjaer, who was bidding to be the first Norwegian U.S. Open champ of any kind. “You get very happy when you win and extremely disappointed when you lose, and sometimes the losing affects you more than the winning. You get more down than you get up. But you have to be realistic sometimes, you can’t win every match.”
Jodar said after the match he now wasn’t certain he would go to play college tennis at Virginia after all.
“Well, right now I’m not thinking about that, so I cannot tell you anything about that,” Jodar said. “I don’t know, to be honest. I cannot tell you that I am going or that I am not going, because maybe, like, everything can happen.”
In the boys' doubles final, it was a team that was only put together last week that took home the title. Japan’s Rei Sakamoto, the Australian Open singles champ this year, partnered with Czechia’s Max Mrva to defeat Czechia’s Daniel Petak and Switzerland’s Flynn Thomas, 7-5, 7-6.
Sakamoto had played doubles all year with Federico Cina of Italy, but Sakamoto said when Cina decided not to play the Open, he was open to new partners.
“I asked him because he’s the best player, so of course I want to play with him,” Mrva said with a smile. “And he told me if (Federico) doesn’t play, he’ll play with me. So of course I’m very happy.”
Sakamoto and Mrva were up 4-2 in the second set and looked to be cruising to victory, but Petak and Thomas battled back and won the next three games. But the top seeds steadied themselves and forced a tiebreak, and after match point, did a choreographed celebration of pulling out samurai swords.
“It’s great to have two,” Sakamoto said of his pair of Slam trophies. “It was so much fun.”