Rafael Jodar clinched his maiden win at the Cincinnati Masters by coming back from the brink of defeat against Denis Shapovalov.
The Spanish 12th seed was on the verge of exiting the tournament after trailing 1-5 in the deciding set, but staged a remarkable comeback to win 7-5, 4-6, 7-5. Jodar, who saved a match point when down 3-5, is the youngest player in this year’s draw. Coming into the tournament, he has reached the quarter-finals or better in seven out of eight tournaments since April.
“Very happy to get my first win in Cincinnati,” Jodar told Tennis TV.
“I knew it wasn’t gonna be easy, especially playing against Dennis, who’s a great player. I had to give it all to win this match.”
During the decider, Jodar’s shoelaces broke twice, with both occasions occurring midway through a game. Shapovalov was visibly unhappy, especially the second time, when it happened while the Canadian was leading 5-3, 15-15. The former world No.10 complained to the umpire, but nothing could be done.
“I cannot control that, I just accepted the situation,” Jodar commented.
“I broke some shoelaces, so I’ll make sure to have more new shoes prepared for the next match, in case it happens again.”
Jodar has now won 19 out of 20 matches against players ranked outside the top 40 since April. The 19-year-old is rapidly rising up the rankings and is closing in on making his top 10 debut at some stage. He is currently 11th in the world but hasn’t got any points to defend at the US Open.
“Everyone plays very well, especially in the Masters 1000s, so I had to play my best tennis to get to a good level of tennis,” he said.
“I’m super happy with that and how I control all the emotions, especially in the third set.”
Zverev wins at 2:15am
French Open champion Alexander Zverev had to play into the early hours of Sunday morning to book his place in the next round.
Zverev, who is the top seed, came back from a set down to defeat Cameron Norrie 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 after more than two-and-a-half hours on court. The German has won 12 out of 13 opening tournament matches this season and now leads Norrie 8-0 in their head-to-head.
Zverev won the Cincinnati title in 2021 and has reached the semi-finals in his three previous appearances. This week he is aiming to win his 26th Tour-level title and his eighth at Masters level.
“I was practising quite well here, which is very different to Canada. I was practising terribly, and I was playing terribly (there),” Zverev said during his on-court interview.
“I’ve been playing well this season, but my confidence was not there because I lost the first round in Canada.
“t was about finding a rhythm. I did that. The first set wasn’t great, but afterwards, the second and third sets were really high level, and I’m happy about that.”
Zverev will next play France’s Terence Atmane.
