MADRID — On Sunday night time at the Caja Mágica tennis advanced, there have been so many moments when Rafael Jódar might have patted himself on the again for an job effectively finished and known as it a match at the Madrid Open.
He was down two break factors in his first service sport towards João Fonseca of Brazil, who has deservedly occupied the hot-young-thing chair in men’s tennis for over a yr. Instead, Jódar gained that sport, and then the first set — in a tiebreak. But in the second, Fonseca began to dash away from him, taking on this battle of two 19-year-olds who might have a lot to say about the route of the sport in the coming years.
Jódar saved hammering. Fonseca went up 40-15 on his personal serve at 0-1 in the third set, however made a few careless errors to lose 5 factors in a row and hand Jódar a break for 2-0. The Brazilian smashed his racket. It was mainly over, however Jódar was not completed, blasting his solution to one other break and then the match in entrance of his hometown followers, who exploded for him from the second he walked onto the court docket in the Manolo Santana Stadium.
Along the approach, Jódar confirmed the tennis world that the outdated archetype of the Spanish males’s tennis participant, the grinder who turns his opponents’ legs to goo over the course of an infinite afternoon, could also be lifeless and gone endlessly.
Rafael Nadal, the king of clay, began digging that stereotype’s grave along with his evolutions to the sport. Carlos Alcaraz has been studying its final rites for the higher half of the final 5 years. Jaume Munar, who entered 2025 remodeled into a extra aggressive, front-foot participant, did his half to organize the wake.
It’s Jódar who seems on the verge of driving a stake via it.
“We are a bit blinded by the fact that the way Rafa played is the only way you can play on clay, but it’s not,” stated Casper Ruud, a two-time French Open finalist, referring to his hero, the 14-time champion at Roland Garros.
Ruud, and everybody else in males’s tennis, has had an eye fixed on Jódar of late. He’s been onerous to overlook. He raised some eyebrows when beat Learner Tien, who spent final season flying up the rankings, in his first match eventually yr’s Next Gen ATP Finals, the end-of-season match for gamers below 20.
Jódar was nonetheless enrolled as the star of University of Virginia’s college tennis program, however he had gained three ATP Challenger Tour occasions — the rung beneath the predominant tour — throughout the season. That was sufficient to qualify him for the Next Gen occasion, and simply earlier than the begin of 2026, he introduced that he was hitting the professional tour full-time.
He hasn’t appeared again since. He certified for the Australian Open and then gained his first Grand Slam main-draw match, in 5 units. He gained two main-draw matches at the Miami Open, earlier than selecting up his first full ATP Tour title in Marrakech, Morocco in early April. Back on residence clay, he’s plowed his approach into the fourth spherical of a Masters 1000 for the first time with three consecutive wins, together with a second-round defeat of Alex de Minaur, the world No. 8.
Jódar has lifted the match in a approach solely a native might. As he started his walk-on Sunday night time for the Fonseca match, the public handle announcer gave him the full Nadal therapy, stretching out the remaining sounds of “Rafael” and letting the packed crowd on Court Manolo Santana take it from there. There is nothing fairly like a teenager named Rafa sprinting throughout crimson clay to make the hearts of followers in the Spanish capital go pitter-patter and dream of future glory.
And but, to get caught up in what Jódar may someday be would threat lacking the present that this unseasoned model of him is placing on. With the first match on the schedule Sunday night time stretching to 3 units and almost two-and-a-half hours, the Spaniards needed to wait till near 11 p.m. Sunday night time for Jódar and Fonseca to get below approach.
That is much less of a huge deal in Madrid than elsewhere. This is the land of the midnight supper. The hometown devoted waited, and the overwhelming majority of them had been there for the finish of the 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-1 win simply earlier than 1 a.m.
Across greater than two hours, Fonseca and Jódar delivered one thing removed from the type of red-clay chess match seasoned followers might need anticipated from a Brazilian and a Spaniard. Instead they obtained a teenage flurry of winners, errors, tactical naivety, shouts and sulks: A battle between two gamers wanting for the first likelihood to whack the ball previous the different man, largely as a result of they haven’t but developed the instruments to cease that taking place on a common foundation.
They took turns speeding one another’s second serves, leaping into the returns and attempting to stuff the ball into the nook. Jódar was much more dynamic than his opponent, lunging and throwing his physique into each backhand return he might. His groundstrokes rip via the court docket, however the energy all comes from timing and the kinetic chain, reasonably than muscling or heaving the ball.
Rafael Jódar is surging up the males’s tennis rankings. (Miguel Reis / NurPhoto by way of Associated Press)
Then got here the highlights, which linger longer in the reminiscence than the out-of-position misses and slaps. Why hit a defensive lob from six toes behind the baseline, when it’s attainable to swat a operating forehand to the postage stamp that may get a roar from the crowd?
Jódar is so uncooked and performs so quick that he’s sometimes readying himself to blast a serve whereas the ball youngsters are nonetheless rolling the balls to 1 one other or operating again into place. Against Fonseca, the chair umpire needed to ask him to attend. He flung his arms and jawed with anybody who would hear.
The Brazilian, who is thought for having one of the largest forehands in the sport, was the extra skilled participant Sunday night time, a new scenario that he stated afterward made him nervous. He averaged 78 mph on his forehand, down barely from his common of 81 mph, regardless of unleashing the occasional bomb that flew via the court docket. His spin fee on the shot averaged slightly below 2,800 revolutions per minute.
Usually he’s simply above 3,000. He combined in extra slices and offspeed balls than he may do normally, attempting to inhabit the position of the extra skilled participant.
That was effectively behind Jódar, whose forehand averaged 85 mph and almost 3,200 RPMs.
“Very tough,” Jódar stated when it was over. “These matches are decided by very small details and very small points. I think I did a great job in those points, trying to play my game.”
According to Brian Rasmussen, the assistant coach for the males’s workforce at Virginia, doing issues his personal approach has been central to Jódar’s success. It’s a trait that Rasmussen believes he inherited from his father, additionally Rafael, a girls’s basketball coach, physiotherapist and now a largely self-taught tennis coach, who has guided his son to the edge of the prime 40. A yr in the past, he was world No. 687.
So far, the elder Jódar seems to be taking part in towards kind as effectively. While his son battled towards Fonseca Sunday night time, his father sat stoic and alone — no hometown entourage in sight — in the courtside gamers’ field. Even when the match tightened, he was largely nonetheless and silent.
“He wants Rafa to have adversity,” Rasmussen stated. “He wants his son to work through these things.”
Jódar didn’t enter the sport attempting to repeat the Spanish archetype. He can chase balls down and defend in the corners, however his default setting is to crowd the baseline, utilizing first-strike aggression that may take his opponent’s racket out of their hand.
“Rafa is so humble he is going to grab things from every player, said Rasmussen, who accompanied Jódar to Australia in January. “Anything I ever asked him to do in practice, he would do that and he does it full intensity. He’s super humble and super hungry.”
Rasmussen and Andres Pedroso, the head coach of UVA, got here to know Jódar about a yr earlier than his breakout win at the U.S. Open junior match in 2024. Jódar was outdoors the prime 100 in the world junior rankings then. But they appreciated his work ethic and the approach he obtained together with the workforce on his recruiting go to. UVA introduced his recruitment on social media in November 2023, subsequent to a different younger participant: Fonseca.
He did a coaching block at Virginia in the summer time of 2024, did effectively at an occasion in Maryland, then went to New York and gained the junior title. At that time, lots of juniors would have determined to skip a stint in school. Fonseca did, and by no means performed for UVA. Jódar didn’t.
He joined the workforce in January of 2025, went 19-3, turned an All-American and was voted Rookie of the Year for all sports activities. He additionally made the Atlantic Coast Conference’s tutorial honor roll and was named one of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s scholar athletes.
Once he began to pile up wins on the ATP Challenger Tour, it was time to maneuver on.
“Playing against lots of players of a high level, I believe, is letting me improve my own level,” he stated in Spanish after pummeling de Minaur, 6-3, 6-1 on Friday. “When you play against this type of player, the best players in the world, you are really going to increase your level.”
That dynamic modifications Tuesday, when he faces Vít Kopřiva of the Czech Republic for a spot in the quarterfinals. Jódar is now ranked larger than Kopřiva.
All the new Rafa followers must be out in power. They could also be stunned by what they see.