SEPT 25 - 27, 2026 | LONDON
The otherworldly achievements of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner aside, there might not be a player out there right now with more eyeballs on him than Rafael Jodar.
The beanpole Spaniard, who this week will make his Laver Cup debut for Team Europe at The O2 in London, has been pegged as The Next Big Thing since he captured the 2024 US Open boys’ singles title. After making the college-to-pros leap this year (he was the 2025 ITA National Rookie of the Year at the University of Virginia), Jodar has done nothing but live up to those outsized expectations, a high-octane, 6-foot-3 baseliner with an explosive ground game and freakish court coverage.
This time last year, the Madrileño was perched at No. 325 in the PIF ATP Rankings. This week, he’s on the cusp of the Top 10 at No. 14. In January, he made his Grand Slam main-draw debut at the Australian Open, where as a qualifier he advanced to his first major quarterfinal. His first tour-level title came on clay in Marrakech, followed by deep home-soil runs in Barcelona (semis) and Madrid (quarters). By August, he was inside the Top 20, the first man born in 2006 to reach an ATP Masters 1000 semifinal in Montreal.
When you have that kind of success in your teen years, you start to expect those results week-in, week-out. But Jodar knows he’ll have to temper his own expectations, that there’ll be bumps in the road along the way. He came into the 2026 US Open with high hopes, only to fall (convincingly) in the opening round to China’s Buyunchaokete, 6-2, 6-1, 6-1. Said Jodar upon the defeat: “There are going to be days like this.”
“I try not to be impatient,” Jodar told LaverCup.com on Wednesday in London. “I’m aware that this is my first year, that I’ve been on tour for only eight months. I still have tournaments that I haven’t discovered yet. I haven’t even played a full year on tour. I’m a perfectionist. I want the results to come, but at the same time, I have to be aware and have some perspective of how far I’ve come in the last year. I’m in a position where I can compete against the best players in the world. I’m very grateful, very thankful that I’m in this position.”
Only days removed from his 20th birthday, the right-hander looks to his namesake father/coach for guidance, a man he calls his hero.
“I get a lot of support from my family, from my father,” he said. “They’re the people who care the most about me, that want the best for me. They’ve been in there since the beginning, even before I was a tennis player, in the good and bad moments. Having their support means a lot to me. It gives me confidence that I always have support from them.”
“They always tell me to be humble, to work hard every day, and that there’s still a lot to improve in my game,” he added. “I think it’s good to have that mindset, that I can keep improving.”
That Jodar was hand-picked by the second-year Team Europe captain/vice-captain combo of Yannick Noah and Tim Henman says a whole lot about his progression. As we saw last year in San Francisco with Team World rookie Joao Fonseca of Brazil, a Laver Cup nod is all but a stamp of approval from the very best in the sport; a sign that you’re doing things the right way.
“It’s great to be in an event like this with the best players in the world,” said Jodar. “It’s going to be a very fun event, but at the same time very competitive, because everyone wants to win. I’m looking forward to joining the team for the first time. I think we have very good chemistry. We get along with each other very well.”
Jodar is the lone first-timer on Noah’s roster. Seven-time major singles titlist Carlos Alcaraz, reigning US Open champ Alexander Zverev, Roland Garros runner-up Flavio Cobolli, Jakub Mensik and Casper Ruud are all returnees.
“It’s different from any other tournament or competition,” said Jodar. “It’s good to be in an environment with these players, sharing everything with them, practicing with them, playing against other very good players. I’ll take this experience as a lesson for the future.”
Noah and Henman are happy to help him learn.
“It’s great to have them as captains,” said Jodar. “They bring a lot of experience, a lot of years on the tour. It’s good to have them on the bench. They support us in every way possible, especially a guy like me who’s playing for the first time.”
