乔达尔在获得首个ATP冠军后提到纳达尔和阿尔卡拉斯

Rafa Jódar is starting to be taken seriously by people. He is no longer a budding promise or a gem to be polished; he is a full-blown reality. This was evidenced by his dreamy 2026, where he made it into the top 100, ranked as number 57 in the ATP rankings, and clinched his first ATP title in Marrakech at just 19 years old.

Even though he is still young, his tennis speaks differently. With a forehand that is a hammer and a very effective serve, he deviates from the typical Spanish tennis player as he embodies pure aggressiveness. However, it is not just his tennis that stands out but also his mentality. He has a level-headedness that keeps him grounded even hours after winning his first professional tennis trophy, defeating Marco Trungelliti (6-3, 6-2) in the Marrakech final.

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Rafa Jódar reflected on his great week in Marrakech and talked about the advice he receives from Carlos Alcaraz and Rafa Nadal.

This is evident in his interview with the newspaper AS, where he reviewed his historic week in Marrakech. Despite it being one of his first clay court tournaments, the Madrid native glided on the Moroccan clay as if he had been playing on it all his life: “I knew I was doing things well, that I was working very well, and that in recent months, I had improved my level a lot. I think overall I have done things very well, and that's what has borne fruit this week here in Morocco.”

Even the fact that he has only played seven tournaments as a professional and competed for the first time in a final did not affect him, neither at the beginning when he broke the Argentine's serve at the start of the match, nor at the end when he remained calm, preventing Trungelliti from mounting any kind of comeback: “I knew I had to do things as I had done all week. It was my first clay tournament this season, and everything went very well. I had a game plan, and it was executed perfectly; as the match progressed, I felt better.”

All indications are that this premature success will make all eyes start to focus on him in every tournament he enters, and expectations will rise. However, this is not something that concerns the young man from Madrid: “No pressure. I am very young, I have many matches ahead to improve my level, and I still have a lot of room for improvement. The important thing is that this gives me more motivation to keep working hard, as always."

One of Jódar's guiding principles, leading him down the path of victory at a very young age, is his perspective on tennis: "It is something that has come naturally to me since I was young and something I have always enjoyed. I have progressed step by step, without skipping stages: first in juniors and then gaining experience on the circuit. For me, this is not a job. Every time I step onto the court, whether in a match or in training, it is to have fun. Sometimes the results come along, and other times not so much, but that does not mean I am not enjoying it. I always try to enjoy and give my best."

In fact, the confidence he exudes on the court and his age reminiscent of the beginnings of Rafa Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz, although these are not very distant. However, instead of focusing on comparisons, Jódar concentrates on the advice he receives from both the Majorcan and the Murcian: “I'm somewhat in the middle, so I take advantage of the best from the two. I take the advice Rafa gives me when I can talk to him and also that of Carlos when we meet. I don't pick just one: I try to create a good and healthy environment, and I gladly accept all the advice from Spanish tennis players."

This is Rafa Jódar, a simple and humble guy off the court but a true winning machine on it. Both personalities share a common goal: to become the best possible tennis player. And so far, he is on the right path.

This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Jódar se acuerda de Nadal y Alcaraz tras su primer título ATP