How the life of a tennis player goes back and forth, with what passion Pablo Carreño feels it, a 34-year-old Asturian workaholic who years ago had been the tenth racket in the world and in recent times has overcome a range of injuries and is now also a father and when asked, he answers:
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-Watching a video of my son holding the racket while he watches me play… that has made all this worthwhile for me.
True, it is worth it to him. It is worth it even now that he yields to Rafa Jódar, in the round of 16 and on a noble stage, the Suzanne Lenglen of Roland Garros. The duel between Spaniards leans towards the youngster (4-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 and 6-2), this impetuous Jódar who is growing rapidly and already glimpses the Top 20 worldwide, who would have thought at the beginning of the year, when he barely appeared in the Top 200 (he was 165th).
When he talks about the pain, Carreño refers to the drift he has gotten into: two years ago he was 1,049th in the world.
The humerus, the elbow, the shoulder, a range of physical setbacks had compromised his sports career. In 2024, at this same Roland Garros, Carreño revealed self-destructive thoughts to us.
He said:
-I have had some somewhat self-destructive, negative thoughts, that I was not going to recover from my right elbow.
During this time, his has been a way of the cross of challenger tournaments, smaller ones, combined with sporadic appearances in bigger theaters, brief appearances, since neither his physique nor his tennis allowed for much, so he fell early.
In April, at the Barcelona Godó Trophy, he left injured, retired in the small draw when facing Pedro Martínez Portero. At the Madrid Masters 1000 he fell in the second round. In Rome he passed the qualy but also gave up early, in the first match of the main draw.
With such background, we could not expect great things from Carreño, at least not in this Paris confused by the tragedy of the gods (Alcaraz is not here, Sinner and Djokovic fall…). And yet, here he has now emerged, he has done so by asserting himself against Lehecka, Kokkinakis and Tirante, and also against Rafa Jódar (19), the tennis player of the future who claims his present, is in a hurry and with that hurry starts his commitment against Carreño: he places himself 4-1 up in the first set.
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But then, he falters.
Jódar’s blackout stirs Carreño’s spirit, who accelerates and accelerates and strings together nine consecutive games, seems to bury Jódar, who does not know what face to make, how to position himself on the court, how to recover composure.
In no time, Carreño places himself two sets up, doing so with two 6-4s, but then he himself becomes unconfigured, and those long passing shots that before went to the line now go out, and the backhand no longer has strength or intensity, and the first serve gets stuck, and he sees how Jódar gets into the court and insists on him:
-This is my moment, I’m not waiting any longer.
Half an hour later, Jódar takes the third set, and then the demons come down on Carreño: his right shoulder hurts, he calls the doctor, calls the physio. He takes off his shirt and the doctors manipulate the joint right there, at court side.
And the sky opens up for Jódar.
“We are good friends, sometimes we train together, I wish him the best for the rest of the season – he tells Àlex Corretja in the post-match interview -. Carreño plays very deep on the court, I had a hard time in the first two sets, then I found solutions.”
Clear path!
He accelerates towards the fourth set. He continues serving at 215 km/h. He wins it in 37 minutes and then both go to the locker room and the crowd wonders what Carreño will do now, if he will return to the stage or announce that he can no longer.
He finally returns, comes back five minutes later while Jódar consults his father-coach, that serious man who, like a solitary figure, watches him from the box. He asks what he should do, how much more time can be granted to the opponent, and thus communicates it to the referee, five minutes and that’s it.
Carreño returns to the scene and fights until the last shot, but by then his fate is sealed: he has to give way to Jódar, the rookie in a Grand Slam who can consider higher goals, who knows if the highest.
For now, he awaits the winner of the Zverev-De Jong match that is being played at this hour.
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