Spanish teenager described as ‘the real deal’ by tennis great – ‘He has a big chance’
Rafael Jodar is the name on everyone’s lips with the Spanish teenager described as the “new Rafa Nadal” and praised for his “brilliant” attitude.
Twelve months ago, Jodar was sitting at No 707 in the ATP Rankings and playing on the ATP Challenger Tour. Fast forward to 2026 and he finds himself at No 29 in the rankings and in the second round of the French Open.
Needless to say, his rise has been phenomenal with most of his success coming this year as he started the season at No 168 and only made his Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open.
The 19-year-old broke into the top 100 after reaching the third round of the Miami Open before his maiden ATP Tour singles title at the Grand Prix Hassan II in Morocco helped him to surge into the top 60.
His success story continued at the Barcelona Open as he reached the semi-final, while he made the quarter-final at the Madrid Open and Italian to crack the top 30 and secure a seeding at the French Open.
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And he started his Roland Garros campaign with a blistering 6-1, 6-0, 6-4 win over Aleksandar Kovacevic, leading to tennis great and TNT Sports analyst Mats Wilander waxing lyrical as he feels the Spaniard is now ahead of fellow teen Joao Fonseca.
“He’s unbelievably good,” the former world No 1 told TNT Sports. “The new Rafa [Nadal]. He hits the ball so clean, but the most important thing is the attitude.
“The attitude is absolutely brilliant, doesn’t matter if it’s the first round, or if he plays against Jannik Sinner in Madrid, he had a chance to win the second set there.
“To me, he’s the real deal. Joao Fonseca was the real deal, he still has a good chance, but Rafael Jodar is the new name, and the new name has a big chance to get into the top 10, even at the end of the year. He’s good on all surfaces.”
Jodar currently sits at No 29 in the Live Rankings and could make his top-20 breakthrough with a deep run at the clay-court Grand Slam.
With two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz unable to defend his title due to a wrist injury, Jodar has turned into the big Spanish hope at Roland Garros this year, much to the delight of two-time French Open runner-up Alex Corretja.
“I’m so pumped. Of course, we’ve been missing Carlos Alcaraz during the clay court season, all of a sudden, we just bring [in] Rafa Jodar,” the former world No 2 said.
“This is unreal what he’s been doing. Not just winning Marrakech, then he played very well in Barcelona, back-to-back in Madrid and Rome as well.
“He’s so, so humble, knows exactly what he wants. He works with his father, they are both very chill. I saw him here the other day, and I said ‘so how are you feeling?’. And he went ‘it’s just super good to be here, happy to be playing Roland-Garros for the first time, not juniors’.
“I think he’s not panicking, not putting too much pressure on himself, but at the same time, he has so much confidence. That’s good to go into the tournament.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing how far he can go. The seed from his side, Taylor Fritz, went out last night.”
*Mats Wilander and Alex Corretja will feature as part of TNT Sports’ Roland-Garros coverage*
*Every match of Roland-Garros is live across TNT Sports and HBO Max*.
