Rafael Jodar has continued his stunning run on clay by reaching the quarterfinals of the Italian Open.
Jodar is the 32nd seed in Rome, where he has knocked out Nuno Borges, Matteo Arnaldi and now Learner Tien.
The Spaniard entered the ATP Masters 1000 tournament after superb runs on home soil at the Barcelona Open and Madrid Open.
Jodar reached the semifinals of the former and the quarterfinals of the latter, losing to Arthur Fils and Jannik Sinner respectively.
He’s now enjoying another successful run at the Italian Open, where the 19-year-old has just matched two Novak Djokovic feats.
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Rafael Jodar matches two Novak Djokovic feats after latest Italian Open win
After knocking out fellow rising star Tien, Jodar is now the first teenager to reach the Italian Open quarterfinals since Djokovic in 2007.
And more significantly, he is also the first teenager to reach multiple ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinals in a season, again since the Serbian legend in 2007.
It is superb company for the Spanish ace, who now takes on the winner of the match between Alexander Zverev and Luciano Darderi.
Jodar was seemingly in for a very tricky test against Tien, but he brushed the American aside with relative ease, winning 6-1, 6-4 after just one hour and 15 minutes.
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Jodar has been among the standout players of the 2026 ATP season so far, in which he claimed his maiden career title.
The teenager went all the way in Marrakech earlier this month, and entered the Italian Open with an impressive 17-8 record.
Jodar has broken the ATP Tour top 40 too, with the talented youngster currently in his career-high ranking of 34.
| Year | ATP rank |
| 2023 | 1751 |
| 2024 | 896 |
| 2025 | 168 |
| 2026 | 34 |
His latest efforts have, of course, come amid the absence of his compatriot Carlos Alcaraz, who is currently sidelined with a wrist injury.
Whether or not he can challenge world number one Sinner like Alcaraz has remains to be seen, but there is rightfully plenty of excitement surrounding Jodar right now.
Jodar is clearly comfortable both on clay and against higher-ranked ATP players, which certainly bodes well for him as Roland Garros approaches.
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