Big things expected from rising star Rafael Jodar

Jodar has enjoyed a breakout 2026, catapulting himself from outside the world's top 150 to being the 32nd seed at Rome in just five months.

The 19-year-old won his first ATP title in Morocco in April and cracked the top 50 in the rankings by reaching the  Barcelona semi-finals.

Jodar earned his first win over a top 10 player with a straight-sets victory over world number eight  Alex de Minaur in the Madrid Masters, before falling to eventual champion Jannik Sinner in the last eight.

For a long time, Joao Fonseca was billed as the next wonderkid of the sport but Jodar is threatening to push the Brazilian, 19, off of that perch.

Now, former US Open champion Thiem has waxed lyrical about the young Spaniard ahead of Jodar's second-round meeting with either Nuno Borges or Jesper de Jong.

Former world No 3 Thiem was speaking about the 2026 ATP Fantasy season, which allows fans to act as a team manager and create virtual squads featuring the likes of Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, and Sinner.

Off the back of Jodar being 18th in the live ATP Race rankings, Thiem believes the youngster should be included in a participant's roster - where players have an initial budget of 100 credits and can select six starting stars and two alternatives.

He told the ATP's website, "The young players are very exciting. Right now, I would go with Jodar because he was super consistent. He won the ATP 250 in Marrakech. Then he played the semi-finals in Barcelona and the quarter-finals in Madrid.

"So I think there might be some great results coming up from him in the remaining clay swing. So I would go for him."

However, Thiem did point out how different the high altitude of Madrid plays from the slower clay courts in Rome. Ergo, success in one does not necessarily translate to success in the other.

Thiem added, âœThe transition from Madrid to Rome is really, really difficult. Madrid is high altitude, super fast court, and Rome is a bit slower, not high altitude anymore, so it is quite different.

"That's why I think if somebody is playing super well in Madrid, that doesn't mean that they will also continue playing super well in Rome."

Fonseca announced himself on the ATP Tour with a memorable run to the last eight of the 2024 Rio Open, as the 17-year-old became the second youngest ATP 500 quarter-finalist since the series began in 2009 and the first since Alex Zverev in 2014.

His hype train has been building since then, backed by an army of passionate Brazilian fans.

Jodar, on the other hand, was enrolled on the University of Virginia's college tennis program and only turned professional last December.

And yet his rise has been even more spectacular. Jodar ended up winning 18 of his first 25 matches, a feat Alcaraz (14), Sinner (12), Fonseca (15) and even the great Rafael Nadal (15) couldn't match.

He lifted his first trophy in just his 19th appearance, whereas Alcaraz didn't claim his first title until match 27.

Jodar outhit Fonseca - who did struggle with a back injury earlier this year - on his way to a 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-1 win in Madrid last month and has 979 points so far this season, compared to the Brazilian's 550 (down in 39th in the race).

As per the ATP Tour, Jodar has the fifth-best return rating over the past 52 weeks, is seventh-best for the percentage of first serve return points won (32.6%), fourth for percentage of return games won (29.5%) and second for percentage of break points converted (44.2%).

While Jodar has a small sample size, both he and Fonseca are huge talents. However, the former's trajectory may be outpacing the latter's.

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