Jódar reaches the quarterfinals in Rome

The Spanish tennis player Rafa Jódar entered this Tuesday into the quarterfinals of the Rome tournament, the third Masters 1000 of the season to be played on clay, after winning in two sets against the American Learner Tien (6-1, 6-4) in one hour and 15 minutes, in which the Spaniard from Madrid showed himself to be much superior to the Under 21 tennis player with the current best ranking.

In another great generational duel, like the one he experienced in Madrid against Joao Fonseca, Rafa Jódar once again demonstrated against Leaner Tien, the best Under 21 on the circuit, that he is ready to be a reference in the future, even the present. For the fourth tournament, and second Masters 1000, in a row, the Spaniard has slipped into the top eight tennis players, a round in which he will try to surpass his ceiling in this category of tournaments, as well as settle in the Top 30 of the ATP ranking.

Once again, the tennis player from Leganés started the match with several gears more than his rival. Thus, Jódar would need just over half an hour to go a set up on the scoreboard. And both tennis players started the match keeping their first turn of serve, but from then on, the Spaniard’s offensive tennis took over the match. Five consecutive games, two to the rest, to win a first set in which he only committed four unforced errors.

The match seemed to have taken the fast track, however, the American would improve his performance in the second set, even though the start would not be very promising, raising two break points against him. A difficult moment that helped Tien gain confidence and even take a break lead (1-3) after breaking the Spaniard’s serve for the first time in the match.

But there, in the most complicated moment of the match, Jódar showed personality and used his most consistent tennis. Four consecutive games to regain the initiative in the set. First, he responded with a ‘counterbreak’ and, later, he would maintain his serve and then break his rival’s serve again. Thus, after maintaining his last two serves again, he would close the match 6-4 after an hour and a quarter of play.