PARIS — There was a familiar refrain heard in the stands at Roland Garros on Wednesday. “Vamos, Rafa!”
It’s a phrase that’s been yelled thousands of times over the past two decades at the French Open, but it’s been largely absent since Rafael Nadal’s retirement in 2024.
But the fans in the nearly full Court 7 weren’t trying to conjure up the 14-time tournament champion. Instead, the 1,500 or so who packed the seats — which included former world No. 3 and 2013 French Open finalist David Ferrer — were all there to catch a glimpse of the latest Spanish up-and-coming star, Rafael Jodar, in his first appearance at the Slam.
With every strike of the ball, every jump, and even when he took a hard tumble and found himself covered in clay, the crowd watched, enamored, as he battled James Duckworth. At the end of the three hours and 22 sweat-drenched minutes, Jodar won the second-round match 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-5 after a double fault from Duckworth.
Jodar — who grew up admiring Nadal — clinched a fist and shook an arm in celebration when it was over, as the crowd rose to its collective feet.
It’s been a staggering rise for the 19-year-old, who turned professional at the start of the season following a brief NCAA stint at Virginia. In January, Jodar came through qualifying to make his major debut at the Australian Open and reached the second round. And while he won a handful of matches on hard court in the spring, it’s on clay where Jodar has surged. In April, he won his first ATP title at the 250-level Grand Prix Hassan II in Marrakesh, Morocco. He then reached the semifinals in Barcelona and the quarterfinals in Madrid. Ranked No. 168 at the start of the year, Jodar arrived in Paris ranked No. 29 and seeded in just his second major.
“It’s been a great year for me,” Jodar said Wednesday. “I’m enjoying every tournament, and every week that I’m playing on the tour is a new chapter for me. I take it as a learning year, because I think I can improve a lot.”
In his first-round match against Aleksandar Kovacevic, he lost just five games — the fewest surrendered in a Roland Garros debut since Novak Djokovic in 2005. With Wednesday’s victory, he became just the fourth Spanish teenager to reach the third round of the French Open over the past 30 years, joining Nadal, Tommy Robredo and Carlos Alcaraz. With a 17-3 tour-level record on clay, he now owns the second-best ATP debut on the surface, trailing only Andy Roddick, who started at 18-2.
Jodar will next face Alex Michelsen, a rising 21-year-old American, on Friday with a chance to reach the second week. Pablo Carreno Busta or Thiago Agustin Tirante, both unseeded, would await in the fourth round.
And no matter what, it seems clear that Jodar’s star will continue to rise in Paris and beyond. Even if he’s just focused on one match and one tournament at a time.
“I think I can improve a lot,” Jodar said. “I can do better things in the future, but always with the same mentality, that I can be better in every tournament and in every match.”
This time last year, Jodar was some 4,660 miles away from Paris in Little Rock, Arkansas, preparing for a Challenger event. He was ranked No. 707 in the world and was watching what he could of the French Open.
He lost in the first round of the Challenger.
“It was obviously another chapter of my life,” Jodar said after his first-round win. “But I think that chapter also helped me, you know, to develop a lot and to be a better player now. I think about those times as times that helped me to be on court.”
After a strong junior career in which he won the 2024 boys title at the US Open, Jodar made an immediate impact as a freshman during the spring 2025 semester at Virginia. With a 19-3 singles record, he was named the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Rookie of the Year and the ACC’s Freshman of the Year, in addition to earning All-American honors. Less than two weeks after the college season concluded, Jodar was in Little Rock and getting ready to play a number of Challenger events.
He then opted to skip the fall portion of the NCAA season. It proved to be the right decision — he won three Challenger titles in that stretch. His ranking and results were good enough to qualify him for the ATP’s Next Gen Finals in December. By the end of the month, he announced he was turning pro.
“My time in college has played a huge role in my growth both as a player and as a person, and I now feel prepared to take this next step and embrace a new challenge in my life,” he wrote in an Instagram post.
While some players struggle in their first months on tour, there was no such learning curve for Jodar. He won 10 of his first 11 matches, coming through qualifying to reach the Challenger final in Canberra before rolling through qualifying and into the second round in Melbourne.
The victory in Marrakesh raised his profile and proved he was a legitimate talent, but it was his matches in Barcelona and Madrid that put him in an entirely different conversation. In Madrid, his hometown, he recorded the first top-10 victory over Alex de Minaur. Jannik Sinner, the world No. 1, sat in the stands to watch. Two days later, Jodar defeated Joao Fonseca, the 2024 ATP Next Gen champion whom many had dubbed “the next big thing,” in three sets. In the quarterfinals, he lost to Sinner but pushed him to a tiebreak in the second set.
The two had a lengthy embrace at the net and Sinner later shared that he told him to “Keep working, keep improving.” Sinner then wrote, “What a player” on the camera lens in recognition of his young opponent.
Keeping it classy 🤝@janniksin with some high praise for Jodar #MMOpen pic.twitter.com/iE8IokLMZi
– Tennis TV (@TennisTV) April 29, 2026
“He’s already a very solid player, and I think he has shown why,” Sinner told reporters after the match. “He’s playing very, very high-quality tennis. … Everyone is improving, you know, so you need always to be in the present moment. That’s also one of the reasons why I went to watch him, you know, him and Joao Fonseca. I like to watch because I know that they are going to be potentially the future opponents most of the time.”
Fonseca echoed Sinner’s thoughts on Jodar, calling him “super solid” when speaking to reporters after his own third-round victory Wednesday.
On Wednesday, with Ferrer, a childhood role model and captain of the Spanish Davis Cup team seated with his father, Jodar was challenged by his opponent and the conditions, but he ultimately believed that would help him down the road.
“I think this match will help me a lot because, ultimately, I see this year as a year to learn a lot,” Jodar said in Spanish. “I’m not going to win every match, obviously, and I’m aware there will be losses, but I’m going to try to learn a lot from both the victories and the defeats.”
Before the match, Jodar hadn’t looked very far ahead in the draw and only found out he would next be playing Michelsen when his father told him ahead of his news conference. But he said he was expecting another tough challenge against the American — “he’s won two matches for a reason” — and was looking forward to having Thursday to recover and prepare.
Jodar doesn’t seem to be thinking about how far he can go this year in Paris. And with Sinner — who is currently on a blistering 30-match win streak — in the draw, it seems unlikely that Jodar will win the title. But a Spanish teenager named Rafa winning Roland Garros in their first appearance isn’t unheard of. Nadal did just that in 2005.
