Great carom for Jódar: it will be the fastest top-10 in the history of the world ranking

Rafa Jodar He is in Paris, where he is preparing his debut at the Paris Masters 1000 ATP, which takes place from November 2 to 8. But he had one eye on the current ATP 500 tournaments in Basel and Vienna, because his immediate future also depended on their final results.

He needed a puncture in the Vienna quarters from the Australian Alex de Minaur, which did not happen, so he had the chance of a failure from the American Taylor Fritz in the Basel semis. And it happened. The Monegasque Valentin Vacherot, His executioner in the round of 16 gave him a hand by knocking down the American 7-6 (5) and 6-3.

This result allows Rafa Jódar, 20 years old, to rise from eleventh to tenth place this Monday, November 2. It will be a new top-10 on the day of the German’s rise Alexander Zverev to first place replacing the Italian Jannik Sinner.

No one has been as quick as Jódar to reach the top ten of the ATP rankings since his debut. It will have taken only 287 days, shattering the Brazilian’s previous record of 490 Gustavo Kuerten.

The chaos of results ended up working in his favor, but it is a conquest that he has earned hard, with a dream first professional season. And there is still the fight to have a place in the ATP Finalsthe masters tournament.

It would suit him if De Minaur lost to Zverev in the second semi-final in Vienna. With this he would arrive with a starting place at the Paris Masters, where each point will be golden to close the list of eight players who will be at the masters’ event.

Exceptional entry by Rafa Jódar in the top-10, when twelve months ago he was number 207 in the classification, after a journey at the University of Virginia, in the United States. He decided to move to the ATP Tour, he was completely right. Marrakech champion, finalist in Washington and Shanghai, Godó and Montreal semifinalist, he has won 45 games and lost 18.

Indoors in Paris he will start against the Chilean left-hander Alejandro Tabilo, whom he already beat this week in Basel. It could be the Madrid native’s springboard to Turin; his presence in the Final 8 of the Davis Cup is already assured.