Madrid
\n Jodar matches Nadal & Alcaraz feat in Madrid, barely 12 km from home<\/p>\n
Spaniard sets R2 meeting with De Minaur; Hurkacz, Machac also advance<\/p>\n
April 22, 2026<\/p>\n
David Ramos\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Rafael Jodar was born and raised in Madrid, barely 12 kilometres from the Mutua Madrid Open.
\n By Jerome Coombe<\/p>\n
Rafael Jodar<\/a> was made to work hard on his debut at the Mutua Madrid Open<\/a> on Wednesday, but the rising Spaniard ultimately delivered an opening treat for his home fans.<\/p>\n The 19-year-old wild card, who grew up training barely 12 kilometres from the Caja Magica, rallied past Jesper de Jong<\/a> 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 to advance at the Spanish ATP Masters 1000 event. Jodar, competing at a career-high No. 42 in the PIF ATP Rankings after claiming his maiden ATP Tour title in Marrakech earlier this month, will next face fifth seed Alex de Minaur<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jodar showed understandable early nerves, having attended the tournament as a fan in his youth, but the Spaniard gradually found his rhythm to secure a clutch victory. He saved all three break points he faced in the second set before converting his fifth set point and edging a topsy turvy decider.<\/p>\n With his two-hour, 30-minute victory, Jodar became just the third Spaniard \u2014 after Rafael Nadal<\/a> and Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> \u2014 to record a main-draw win in Madrid before turning 20.<\/p>\n Just 12 months ago, Jodar was ranked outside the world\u2019s Top 650, but he has since enjoyed a remarkable rise and established himself as one of the sport\u2019s brightest prospects. The Madrid native competed at last year\u2019s Next Gen ATP Finals and now holds a 14-7 tour-level record in 2026, according to the Infosys ATP Win\/Loss Index, highlighted by his title in Marrakech and a run to the Barcelona semi-finals last week.<\/p>\n You May Also Like: The Jodar phenomenon arrives in Madrid: ‘I can’t say I could have imagined it’<\/a><\/p>\n In other evening action on Wednesday in Madrid, French qualifier Benjamin Bonzi<\/a> defeated countryman Titouan Droguet<\/a> 6-7(4), 7-6(4), 6-4 to set up a meeting with top seed Jannik Sinner<\/a>. The World No. 1 arrives on a 17-match winning streak, having captured titles in Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo.<\/p>\n Hubert Hurkacz<\/a> and Tomas Machac<\/a> were also among the first-round winners on Wednesday. Hurkacz eased past Jaime Faria<\/a> 6-3, 6-3 to book a clash with last year\u2019s semi-finalist Lorenzo Musetti<\/a>, while Machac rallied to a 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-3 win over Francisco Comesana<\/a>.<\/p>\n View Day 1 Extended Highlights from Madrid<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Madrid Jodar matches Nadal & Alcaraz feat in Madrid, barely 12 km from home Spaniard sets R2 meeting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-621931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}