Tennis players usually sign their initials or write motivational quotes, personal jokes or smiley faces on the camera lens after a match.
World No. 1 Jannik Sinner took a different route after his Madrid Masters quarter-final last month. The Italian star is on a historic run – becoming the first player to win five consecutive Masters titles – and is regularly sending opponents down on their luck.
Sinner also won on this occasion, but admitted it was different. “What a player,” he wrote, after surviving the new sensation of Spain’s youth, Rafael Jodar.
The note qualified as Sinner’s seal of approval, even if he was reluctant to name him as part of the new “Big Four”, along with him, Carlos Alcaraz and Joao Fonseca, a fellow player whom Jodar defeated in three sets in the same tournament in Madrid.
Equally eye-catching was Jodar’s act of demolishing Australia’s top 10 star Alex de Minaur 6-3, 6-1 in the previous round. The new “Rafa”, who idolized 22-time slam champion Rafael Nadal, is legit.
It was only last December that Jodar announced that he was leaving the University of Virginia and the college tennis court to turn professional.
“(He plays) amazing tennis,” The sinner said after beating Jodar 6-2, 7-6 (7-0) in Madrid, including saving seven break points.
“I can’t predict the future. What I always believe in is incredible talent. When you’re an athlete, you have a lot of pressure. My advice is to keep the pressure as far away as possible, even though I know there will be a lot of talk off the field.”
The 191-centimeter-tall kid from Madrid, who is still only 19 years old, stopped the clock 175km/h front winner against Mdhambini in a display of his raw power and shooting. He boasts a 200km/h-plus first, and is equally adept on both wings.
A global outpouring is inevitable when something like Jodar (HO-dar, with the “J” pronounced in Spanish like the “H” in “hot”) achieves what he has in the last two months.
He qualified for and won this year’s Australian Open – his self-proclaimed favorite tournament – and started March outside the top 100. But he will be available at Roland Garros – where Nadal won the singles title 14 times – when the tournament starts on May 24 (AEST).
With Alcaraz’s ankle injury preventing him from defending his title in Paris, only veteran Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina will be ranked higher than Jodar among the Spaniards competing in the French capital.
Jodar’s meteoric rise includes qualifying for the round of 32 at the Miami Masters, winning the Marrakech ATP 250 title, reaching the semifinals at the ATP 500 level in Barcelona, and reaching the quarterfinals at his hometown event, the Madrid Masters.
He completed his preparations for Roland Garros this week by reaching the quarterfinals at the Rome Masters.
Jodar is already raising questions about his budding rivalry with Fonseca, who he said to this great man in Brisbane in January that the young Spaniard had “great potential”. Jodar echoed those sentiments about the Brazilian.
“I’m sure he’ll be doing great things,” Jodar said. “He’s a very young player, a good player, so I wish him all the best for the rest of the season and his career.”
Sinner is the favorite to win this year’s Roland Garros title in Alcaraz’s absence, completing his grand slam set, but Jodar and Fonseca are just two of the stars dreaming of dethroning him at the top of the game.
There are 11 men aged 21 or younger in the world’s top 100, including Australian Open quarterfinalist Learner Tien, last year’s Miami Masters champion Jakub Mensik, Madrid semifinalist Alexander Blockx and Novak Djokovic-winner Croat Dino Przmic.
Jodar dropped just five games past Tien in Rome.
Two other Spaniards, former junior world No. 1 and fellow Rome quarter-finalist Martin Landaluce and Daniel Merida, are also in the field – but Jodar has leapfrogged both to become the country’s next big hope, even with Alcaraz only 22.
Alcaraz expressed his congratulations on social media after Jodar’s Madrid heroics, writing “Espectacular torneo!” (you can guess what it means), while Nadal’s uncle and former coach, Toni, has named him as the best player of this new generation.
“His development has been very fast in a very short time,” Toni Nadal told Country.
“I believe that, in a few years – and I will certainly be wrong, and it will only be months – Rafa will be one of the best tennis players in the world, a serious candidate to disrupt the lives of the current top players and fight for the most important titles.”
German legend Boris Becker also added his praise, writing on X that Spain were lucky to have “another diamond in (their) ranks”.
Another thing that caught Sinner’s eye about Jodar was his lowly support staff, with his father and coach Rafael Jodar snr – a physical education teacher who didn’t play the sport – often the only person in his players’ box.
But this is far from another cautionary tale among tennis parents’ staff.
“He has a big family behind him. Dad seems very humble,” Sinner said. “He’s got a little bit of a bubble, which is good for him. I think he’s going to do amazing things in the future.”
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