Toni Nadal highlights ‘fragile’ Rafael Jodar deficiency versus Carlos Alcaraz
Toni Nadal has hailed Rafael Jodar as the “best player of this new generation”, while highlighting a “fragile” deficiency he has compared to Carlos Alcaraz.
In the space of a year, Jodar has risen from outside the top 600, while still studying at the University of Virginia, to being seeded at the Italian Open this week.
The 19-year-old is up to 34 in the ATP rankings following a breakout 2026 season, punctuated by his first title in Morocco and reaching the Madrid Open quarter-finals.
His upwards trajectory has caught the eye of Rafael Nadal‘s uncle Toni, who has been mightily impressed by his “lightning fast” progress.
However, Toni – who appears to rate the youngster above fellow 19-year-old Joao Fonseca – still believes there are parts of the teenager’s game that he can work on. He thinks Jodar will challenge the game’s elite soon, but suggested one asset Alcaraz has may continue to elude him.
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Nadal told El Pais, “His progression has been lightning fast in a very short period of time and he has become, from my point of view, the best player of this new generation and the one with the greatest projection.
“I believe that, in a few years – and I will almost certainly be wrong and it will only be months – Rafa will become one of the best tennis players in the world, a serious candidate to complicate the lives of the best players of the moment and to fight to lift the most important trophies.
“The Madrid player is a rather complete player on a technical level. He serves well, has good backhand and forehand strokes and, in addition, is able to execute both with a lot of speed. He is not as fast as Carlos Alcaraz, but he compensates for this by putting great intensity in his legs.”
Toni also said that Jodar is a very “daring” player, just like Jannik Sinner and Alcaraz. However, he is “fragile” when it comes to defending.
He added: “This will be the facet of his game that he will have to improve the most in the coming months.
“However, after seeing its evolution tournament after tournament, in a very short time and in a tireless rise, nothing leads me to think that it cannot make it. I must and I want to think, therefore, that he can aspire to both one thing and the other.”
While Jodar may never be an elite athlete like Alcaraz, he can perhaps take comfort from how Sinner wasn’t the most agile mover around the court in his early years on the tour. Now, though, the Italian is a physical beast and is one of the best defenders in the sport.
Incidentally, Jodar’s Italian Open campaign gets underway when he faces Nuno Borges in the second round. The 32 seed will face either sixth seed Alex de Minaur or wild card Matteo Arnaldi in round three if he sees off the Portuguese.
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