An attack on a tennis player who changes his shoes every time he loses

Rafael Khodar continued his impressive run at the Cincinnati Masters by defeating Denis Shapovalov 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 in a match that lasted more than three hours, however, his victory was overshadowed by another incident involving his shoes.

While trailing 5-3 in the deciding set, Khodar stopped during the ninth game to change his shoes after one of his shoelaces reportedly snapped. The incident upset Shapovalov, who approached the Spaniard and spoke to him about the matter. It was particularly notable given that similar problems had confronted Khodar several times in recent weeks.

After the match, Khodar defended himself during his press conference, saying: Honestly, I can’t do anything about it. It’s something I can’t control. My shoelaces broke and I needed time to tie new ones. I’ll try to have spare laces ready for the next match or other shoes, so I’ll cut down on downtime in case the same thing happens to me.

This was not the first time Khodar faced this problem. It also happened during the Washington final against Taylor Fritz earlier this month, as well as against Corentin Moute and Arthur Vis at the Canadian Masters and in the semi-final against Brandon Nakashima.

These repeated incidents sparked criticism among the tennis world. After Khodar’s defeat to Fritz, a Brazilian journalist wrote on the “X” platform: The Professional Tennis Players Association believes that the match should be stopped because the problematic deviation could cause accidents. However, we cannot turn a blind eye to something that happens in every match, and by pure chance, always when Khodar is losing. It’s starting to get really embarrassing to see such a talented player trying to play like this.
ATP rules allow a match to be suspended when a problem with a shoe or laces poses a potential safety risk, however, Khodar’s frequency of changing his shoes, particularly when trailing during matches, has raised questions from some observers.