![\"Rafael](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/jodar-first-time-winner-spotlight-marrakech-2026.jpg\")
<\/p>\n First Time Winner
\n Jodar on Marrakech milestone & working in the wake of Nadal, Alcaraz: First-Time Winner Spotlight<\/p>\n
#NextGenATP star talks exclusively with ATPTour.com in Marrakech<\/p>\n
April 05, 2026<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Grand Prix Hassan II<\/p>\n
Rafael Jodar claims his maiden ATP Tour trophy on Sunday at the Grand Prix Hassan II.
\n By ATP Staff<\/p>\n
Rafael Jodar<\/a> notched another notable milestone in his young career in Marrakech on Sunday, when the #NextGenATP Spaniard overcame Marco Trungelliti<\/a> 6-3, 6-2 to earn his maiden ATP Tour title at the Grand Prix Hassan II<\/a>. <\/p>\n Jodar, who was outside the Top 900 of the PIF ATP Rankings a year ago but will on Monday rise to a career-high No. 57, later spoke to ATPTour.com to reflect on his latest achievement, what it means, and how he is seeking to emulate the success of certain fellow Spaniards. <\/p>\n You May Also Like: Jodar powers to first ATP Tour crown with Marrakech masterclass<\/a><\/p>\n What does it mean to win your first ATP Tour title so early in your career? Just 12 months ago you were outside the World’s Top 900. How do you summarise this rapid rise? You only turned professional at the end of 2025. Did you expect success to come this quickly? Marrakech was your first tour-level tournament on clay. What do you think has been the key to adapting so fast to the ATP Tour? Who are some of the people you would like to dedicate this title to? The University of Virginia, where I was last year, and all the coaches and teammates that supported me, that still support me [even though] I\u2019m not there. It has been a very good year for me, so I want to thank all the people that support me in the good and bad times. <\/p>\n You also balanced college tennis at the University of Virginia with your professional rise. How did that experience shape your game and mentality? You\u2019re part of a new generation of Spanish players coming through. How motivating is it to follow in the footsteps of players like Rafael Nadal<\/a> and Carlos Alcaraz<\/a>? How are you going to celebrate your first ATP Tour title?
I\u2019m very happy how the week went. Overall, I felt great on court, from the first match. It was the first tournament on clay for me so it was going to be difficult at the beginning, but I always have the mentality that I have to give my best tennis and what I have in that match. That\u2019s what I did in all the matches, so it means a lot to win my first ATP title here in Marrakech. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a great year for me. I\u2019ve been able to experience many good places. I\u2019ve been in many places around the world in this year, so I\u2019m super grateful for all the people that came with me, that were supporting me in the good and in the bad moments. That\u2019s always a motivation for me and I want to thank all the people that helped me to reach this title. <\/p>\n
Honestly, no. I never set a goal in the season. Just to try to give my best and improve my tennis level. But overall, I think I did a great week on clay here in Morocco, so I\u2019m very happy how the week went for me and I will try to make sure this is just the beginning. It has to give me motivation for the next challenges. <\/p>\n
I think everyone here plays very well. You have to be very focused on all the challenges and all the things that other players do during the matches. I think in all the tournaments you have to win the matches with your best level, but some days you don\u2019t have that level so you have to keep believing you can win the match. That has always been my motivation and mentality since I was a kid. <\/p>\n
To my family. I think they have always been there for me since I was very young. I also want to thank my tennis club, where I\u2019ve been playing since I was six years old. I want to thank them for all the facilities that they gave me since I was very young. Also, to all the people that support me. <\/p>\n
I think it was a great year for me in college. I could develop a lot and improve my tennis level a lot. I was only there six months or 12 months, but the coaches helped me a lot, taking me to pro tournaments and balancing the college tennis with the pro circuit. It was a great transition for me. I\u2019m very grateful for everything they did. The coaches were also very close with my dad, who was in Madrid, and I think that connection also helped a lot to develop my tennis level. <\/p>\n![\"\u201cATP](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/atp-fantasy-article-banner.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
It\u2019s a lot of motivation, because there have always been a lot of Spanish players, and very good ones. It\u2019s great that Spain has more and more players playing great on Tour. I\u2019m super happy how everyone on the Tour is doing, not just for the tennis but also for Spanish sport. I think it\u2019s great, and I\u2019m very grateful to be part of that country. <\/p>\n
Honestly, I don\u2019t know. I will have to do something with my dad. I will go back to Spain tonight and try to celebrate tomorrow a little bit with my family. Honestly, I don\u2019t have any plans, but I will do something in Madrid. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First Time Winner Jodar on Marrakech milestone & working in the wake of Nadal, Alcaraz: First-Time Winner Spotlight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-566793","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}