Historical feat of Rafa Jódar: from Orantes to Alcaraz, passing through Corretja or Nadal

Rafa Jódar became the fastest player to reach the top-10 in the world ranking last Monday since his debut on the first professional circuit, in the last Australian Open, after leaving the University of Virginia, in the United States. At 20 years old he achieved what no one had done before, reaching the group of the ten best in his first campaign.

On Friday, another achievement with historic overtones was achieved. Newly arrived at the elite, he will be in the ATP Finals, the Masters Cup that will be held from November 15 to 22 in Turin. Before later participating in the Final 8 of the Davis Cup.

There, in Bologna, he will share the Spanish team with Carlos Alcarazwhom he will thank for his help to be in the Masters of the best eight. The limit was set one place below usual due to the forced resignation of the current champion, the Italian Jannik Sinner. He needed double help in the Paris quarterfinals, and Ben Shelton and the Murcian showed their talents to eliminate the Leganense’s direct rivals, Tommy Paul, who also needed to reach the final, and Taylor Fritz, who would have taken the place from the Madrid native had he achieved one of the two match points against Alcaraz.

Jódar, like the American Frances Tiafoe hours before, took out his ticket. Two more debutants in an ATP Finals of new faces, since the Italian Flavio will also make his debut Cobolli y el francés Arthur Fils. They join the German Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz, Ben Shelton and the Russian Daniil Medvedev. The group draw will be held on Thursday, with the pairs Zverev-Alcaraz, Shelton-Medvedev, Cobolli-Fils and Tiafoe-Jódar.

Rafael Jódar will be the seventeenth Spaniard in this tournament that they have only won Manolo Orantes (1976) and Àlex Corretja (1998), in which Carlos Moyà (1998), Juan Carlos Ferrero (2002), David Ferrer (2007), Rafa Nadal (2010 and 2013) and Carlos Alcaraz, in the last edition, reached the final.

Also attending the event were Andrés Gimeno, Pepe Higueras, Emilio Sánchez Vicario, Sergi Bruguera, Alberto Berasategui, Albert Costa, Tommy Robredo and Fernando Verdasco, in addition to Pablo Carreño, who arrived as a reserve and ended up playing two matches in the group stage.

That Carlos Alcaraz and Rafa Jódar coincide is nothing new in Spanish tennis, which once had three representatives in the same edition. In the current one, Marcel Granollers will also be in doubles, partnering with the Argentine Horacio Zeballos.

Rafa Jódar follows in the footsteps of Carlos Alcaraz, who chained his presence in the Next Gen ATP Finals from one year to the next, which he won, with the absolute Finals. The Madrid native played in the under-20 tournament last season, which he could also play on this occasion, since he is logically the leader of the new team.

Alcaraz will make his fourth appearance, after having played in 2023, 2024 and 2025. He had a place in 2022, he had to resign due to injury.