Rafa Jódar breaks into the Mutua Madrid Open

The Spanish tennis player Rafa Jódar entered this Friday into the third round of the Mutua Madrid Open, the fourth Masters 1000 of the season and which is played on clay, after destroying the Australian Alex De Miñaur, the number five seed in the tournament, (6-3, 6-1), in a match that establishes him as one of the great hopes of Spanish tennis for the future.

Rafa Jódar left behind the nerves of his debut against Jasper De Jong and offered his best version in his second Madrid match. In front of a packed Manolo Santana court, with luxury spectators like Jannik Sinner, the man from Madrid introduced himself to world tennis with a victory that leaves a mark. Jódar did what he wanted with a Top 10 like Alex De Miñaur, who only put up a fight at the start of the duel.

The one from Leganés cemented his most important victory so far on the circuit in a setback that shattered the Australian every time he came into play, and with a personality and maturity typical of more experienced players. In addition, he greatly improved his efficiency with his serve, his great achievement in the first round, while confirming that he is a very dangerous player to the rest, breaking De Minaur’s serve up to five times.

The start of the duel would be a declaration of intentions on the part of Jódar, who, after winning his first turn of serve, would manage to break his rival’s at his first opportunity. However, the Australian would react with a ‘counter break’, to which the Spaniard would also respond with another game to the rest. From there, with the score 3-1 in favor, he would show maturity to, without having to face any breaking balls against him, win his next three serves and close the set (6-3).

Jódar was exultant and with confidence through the roof, and what would happen in the second set would exceed any type of expectation. The one from Leganés would take out his entire repertoire of blows to leave astonished, who was aware that he was witnessing the birth of something very important. And the thing is, 39 minutes were enough for him to take a 6-1 victory to the number five seed in the tournament and close his pass to the third round. Now, next Sunday, in a generational duel against the Brazilian Joao Fonseca, he will seek to reach the round of 16 of a Masters 1000 for the first time.

In addition, Friday’s day left the eliminations of two other top seeds such as Andrey Rublev, champion in Madrid in 2024, and Ben Shelton, who arrived in Madrid after winning in Munich. The Russian would fall in two sets against the Czech Vit Kopriva (6-3, 6-4), and the American would do the same against the Croatian Dino Prizmic in three sets (6-4, (4)6-7, 7-6(5). As for the rest of the Spaniards, Cristina Bucsa was eliminated against the Turkish Zeynep Sonmez (6-1, (4)6-7, 6-2).