There were the logical reservations about the performance of Rafael Jódar after injuring his left wrist in the Washington final against Taylor Fritz, but the Spaniard has cleared them up by reaching his first Masters 1000 semifinals in Montreal. At 19 years old, he is the first tennis player born in 2006 or later to reach this round of a tournament of such rank. Arthur Fils, whom he had already defeated last week in Washington, was his victim on Tuesday night, in a match that was played 20 hours later than scheduled due to rain. He beat the Frenchman 7-6 (5) and 6-3, in one hour and 42 minutes.
After falling in the Madrid quarterfinals (Sinner) and Rome (Darderi), Jódar crosses a new frontier less than three weeks before the start of the US Open. He faces American Brandon Nakashima, the 28th seed, who defeated Darderi 6-2 and 6-3 and will also make his debut among the top four of a Masters 1000.
Setbacks
In his astonishing first season on the circuit, besides projecting himself up to the eleventh place in the rankings, Jódar has taken an accelerated course in dealing with setbacks beyond pure competition. If in Washington he had to play the final last Monday, a day after the scheduled date, rain also delayed his Montreal quarterfinal match against Fils, which was supposed to be played a day earlier. There was more. Already on court, with 5-4 in his favor and 30-0 for the Frenchman, the reappearance of water interrupted the match for about an hour.
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But the Spaniard can handle everything. He also managed a first set that went to a tiebreak when he had successive chances to take it comfortably. Under pressure from the start, Fils was always on the edge. It was their third meeting this year, as the Frenchman won in spring in the semifinals of the Conde de Godó, on his way to the most important title of his career. Jódar had two balls for 4-0 and three more for 5-1, but he could not convert them and saw how his opponent leveled the score and took the decision to a tiebreak.
There Jódar was better again, and in the second set he maintained dominance over a Fils, always trailing, only capable of delaying the final sentence.
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