After winning the Marrakech title in April, Jodar established himself as a force to be reckoned with by enjoying deep runs at the Madrid Open and Italian Open – making the quarter-finals of both, shortly after reaching the semi-finals in Barcelona.<\/p>\n
The 19-year-old narrowly fell on the wrong side of a tie-break which could have forced a decider against world No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the Spanish capital and appears to have brought that momentum to Paris, having been ruthless in his first-round display.<\/p>\n
Former world No. 8 Isner, speaking in the TNT Sports US studio, was enamoured by the display of the Spaniard and thinks he is still far from reaching his peak.<\/p>\n
“He\u2019s on an absolute heater right now,” Isner said. “It showed in how he played in the first round, Kovacevic had no chance out there. He\u2019s got such a good all-around game. His backhand is especially solid, and he appears to be growing into his body. He\u2019s so young. <\/p>\n
“He’s getting physically stronger. His prime is six years away, which is really scary in my mind. He\u2019s so young, 19 years old, one year of tennis at the University of Virginia, turned pro, and he\u2019s come from nowhere to be this absolute force on the ATP Tour right now.”<\/p>\n
![\"picture\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-235bc594-b702-497a-85bb-347bc6695d84-85-2560-1440.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Highlights: ‘New Rafa’ Jodar electrifies Roland-Garros with impressive opening win<\/p>\n
Video credit: TNT Sports<\/p>\n
Jodar has suddenly become one of the most talked-about youngsters in the sport.<\/p>\n
TNT Sports expert Mats Wilander went as far as to say he is the “new name” to be excited about, over the likes of Joao Fonseca, the Brazilian teen sensation who lit up last year’s majors.<\/p>\n
But Jodar is not interested in fast-tracking his route among the men’s tennis elite.<\/p>\n
“I’m not in a rush at all,” Jodar said in his post-match press conference. “I think I still have to learn a lot of things in the tour. <\/p>\n
“It’s just my first year and I’m experiencing a lot of things, you know, in this past few months. But I think these experiences are really helping me to develop as a player.<\/p>\n
“I think as a person I’m learning a lot, when I’m playing the tournaments and when I’m preparing for the matches. So it’s good to have that feeling, you know, to be able to compete in the French Open and in all these tournaments. I’m very grateful, you know, to be part of this tournament.”<\/p>\n
He added: “To play for my first time in Paris at the French Open and seeing so many people, you know, not just from France, but also from other parts, especially from Spain. <\/p>\n
“It was special to see also the many people cheering for me in every point is great. I feel that support, and yeah, I’m very grateful for all the people that – not just today, but also that are supporting me during this process.”<\/p>\n
Jodar will face 34-year-old Australian James Duckworth in the second round. <\/p>\n
TNT Sports is providing live text coverage of every day at the French Open. Click here to follow along<\/a>.Add TNT Sports as a preferred source here<\/a> to enjoy more content like this.Stream every court from the 2026 French Open exclusively live on TNT Sports and HBO Max<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m so pumped!\u2019 – Corretja hails \u2018unreal\u2019 Spanish teenager Jodar Video credit: TNT Sports Jodar – whose emergence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[183549,101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-606128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-roland-garros-mens-singles-2026","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}