Spanish teen Rafa Jodar closes in on Roland Garros seed, books Jannik Sinner Madrid clash

Rafael Joda’s spring awakening continues at the Mutua Madrid Open, where the 19-year-old secured his first Masters 1000 quarterfinal with a victory over Vit Kopriva.

The result is projected to lift Jodar into the Top 40 for the first time, putting him in range for a Grand Slam seeding ahead of Roland Garros next month. With the already-announced withdrawal of defending champion Carlos Alcaraz, Jodar would be one spot out from guaranteeing a seed with three weeks before the Roland Garros draw is set.

“I’m super happy with my level today, with my level at this tournament,” he said on court after defeating Kopriva, 7-5, 6-0. “It’s always so special to play at home in front of many people you know and came to support you. So, I’m super happy to play another match tomorrow.”

Jodar is 16-3 since arriving at the Miami Open, where he qualified and reached the third round. The Spanish teenager went on to win his first ATP title in Marrakech and make his first ATP 500 semifinal at home in Barcelona.

As a wild card in Madrid, he scored back-to-back victories over No. 5 seed Alex de Minaur and No. 27 seed Joao Fonseca, outlasting the latter late into the night on Sunday to reach the fourth round.

From 5-5 in the first set against Kopriva, Jodar won the final eight games to book a quarterfinal clash with world No. 1 Jannik Sinner.

“It’s an opportunity,” Jodar said. “You have to recover well, prepare well for the match the best way as possible and think about tomorrow because it’s going to be another tough match.”

Sinner spoke out about the difficulty Jodar faced from his late-night finish against Fonseca, a result that indirectly led to tournament organizers assigning the top seed a rare 11 a.m. start on Tuesday.

“Jodar is a very, very clean hitter, very easy power,” Sinner said of Jodar after his third-round victory on Sunday. “You can hear with the sound, you know, when he touches it, and it's a good sound coming from the racquet. He's very, very talented. He's going to be a great, great player in the future, and he's already showing. I like the mentality, it's quite calm. I don't know him personally, but he seems very humble. So, yeah, he's a very, very good player, and I wish him only the best.”

Jodar and Sinner will face off for the first time on Wednesday.