Rafael Jodar’s resilience shone once again Wednesday at the Rolex Shanghai Masters, where the 20-year-old battled from a set down for the third consecutive match to reach the quarter-finals at the penultimate ATP Masters 1000 event of the season.
The Spaniard overcame Botic van de Zandschulp 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-2 in two hours and 30 minutes, digging deep once again to secure a comeback win in Shanghai: The 12th-seeded Jodar also rallied to defeat Thiago Agustin Tirante in the second round and Jiri Lehecka in the third round.
Van de Zandschulp made a solid start to the pair’s maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head series clash, saving two break points in the opening set before delivering a watertight display in the tie-break to take the lead. Jodar, however, fought back, gradually gaining momentum before finding a way through to book his place in the quarter-finals on his Shanghai debut.
"I think I was doing the right things, but he played important points in the tie-break better than me," Jodar said following his win. "That's why he won the first set. I had just two break points. In the second set, I started up a break that helped me get [further] into the set in a better shape. Very happy with how the match went today."
With the hard-fought victory, Jodar strengthened his bid to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time. The 20-year-old, competing in his first full season on the ATP Tour, is now 41-16 for the year, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index. He currently sits 11th in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, just 131 points behind 10th-placed Novak Djokovic, in his bid for a place at the prestigious season-ending event.
The next test for Jodar at the Chinese Masters 1000 event will be a quarter-final meeting with Casper Ruud. The 20th-seeded Norwegian advanced to the last eight after Felix Auger-Aliassime retired from the pair’s fourth-round clash. Ruud led Auger-Aliassime 5-2 when the fourth-seeded Canadian stopped due to a knee injury.
“I think he was ready at the start and it seemed to me that he kind of twisted something over at the net in the third or fourth game,” Ruud said. “It’s small margins in this sport, and unluckily for Felix it goes against him today. Unfortunately, it’s the bad part of the game… Felix is a great player and his highest level is up there among the best in the world.
“I was ready for a really tough match, and even though we stopped at 5-2, I was sort of lucky there to get the break from 2-1 to 3-1. I think during that game something seemed to happen to him, and I’m sorry. I hope he heals quick.”
By reaching the quarter-finals in Shanghai for the first time, Ruud completed the full set of reaching the last eight at all nine Masters 1000 events. The 27-year-old is the seventh active player to achieve that feat, after Novak Djokovic, Marin Cilic, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev, Grigor Dimitrov and Daniil Medvedev.
