Rafa Jódar secured a victory at the Washington Open, defeating Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 in one hour and 59 minutes to reach the semifinals of the ATP 500 tournament. The comeback win guarantees the Spanish player will crack the top 20 of the ATP rankings for the first time in his career when the official list updates on Monday.
Entering the week with a career-high ranking of No. 23, Jódar is guaranteed to climb at least to No. 19 following his run in the United States capital. The third career appearance in an ATP tour semifinal and his first on hard courts, following clay-court semifinal runs in Marrakech—where he captured the title—and Barcelona last April.
The quarterfinal clash began with early trouble for the Madrid native. In the fourth game of the opening set, Jódar dropped his serve with a double fault on the sixth break point he faced, having already erased a 0-40 deficit. He missed three break-point opportunities of his own in the subsequent game, allowing Musetti to consolidate his advantage. The Italian broke again at love during a difficult patch for Jódar on court, sealing the opening set 6-1.
Jódar responded immediately in the second set, holding serve at love before generating three break points at 0-40 on Musetti’s serve. Though the Italian fended off those initial chances, Jódar converted his fourth opportunity. Musetti struggled with his delivery throughout the set, landing only 44 percent of his first serves and committing six double faults. A second service break, aided by two more double faults from Musetti, pushed Jódar to a 4-0 lead en route to a dominant 6-1 equalizer.
The decisive third set remained on serve until 2-2, when Jódar broke in the fifth game and consolidated to establish a 4-2 advantage. Maintaining composure, the Spaniard closed out the match cleanly with a hold at love to secure the 6-4 final set.
The result marks only the second victory of Jódar’s career against a top-20 opponent, evening his record in such matchups to 2-5 following a previous win over Alex de Miñaur in Madrid.
“I have to learn many things on the circuit; there are still tournaments I neither know nor have discovered,” Jódar told reporters after the match. “Things are happening very fast, but it is my first year and there is a lot of progression left. I still have to learn a lot.”
“I think all these tournaments, all these matches, help me improve. When things do not go so well, they are also a lesson for the future,” he added. “I am happy, but I am focused on the tournament, on tomorrow’s match. The ranking is a bit secondary. You shouldn’t be thinking about the ranking all the time; that’s not good either.”
Jódar will face Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo, the world No. 30, in the Washington semifinals. The match marks the second career meeting between the two players, following Tabilo’s straight-sets victory in the opening round of Indian Wells earlier this year.
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