Rafael Jodar Rallies Past Lehecka for 40th Win

Rafael Jodar dropped the first set and still found a way. The 20-year-old Spaniard rallied past Jiri Lehecka 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-4 at the Rolex Shanghai Masters on Monday for the 40th win of his debut ATP Tour season, per the ATP.

The win sends the 12th seed into the fourth round and makes him the youngest man since Novak Djokovic in 2007 to reach the fourth round of a Masters 1000 at five consecutive events he has played. It also keeps his push for the Nitto ATP Finals very much alive.

How he flipped it

Lehecka was the hot hand coming in. The Czech had just reached the final in Tokyo, where he lost to Carlos Alcaraz, and he was chasing his own fifth Masters fourth-round run of the season, per the ATP. He came out strong and took the opening set.

Jodar worked his way back in, won the second-set tiebreak 7-2, then delivered under pressure in the closing stages of the third. The match ran two hours and 42 minutes, per the tournament's official results, and it moved Jodar to 2-0 against Lehecka.

"Hanging in there," Jodar said when asked what he was most proud of. "It was very difficult today with the conditions. Jiri played very good from start to finish, serving very well. I had to give my best to win this match today."

A rookie season that keeps growing

Jodar only turned pro in December 2025. He is now 40-16 this season and sits 11th in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, per the ATP. He is one of eight players with at least 40 tour-level wins in 2026, on a list led by Alexander Zverev with 60.

Five straight Masters fourth rounds is not a hot week. That is a pattern, and it is the kind of consistency that usually takes players years to build. Doing it in your first full season, against a field that includes the best players in the world every single week, is what makes the Djokovic comparison land.

It also changes how opponents see him. A 20-year-old who turned pro less than a year ago is now a seeded name that higher-ranked players have to plan for.

Van de Zandschulp next

Next up is Botic van de Zandschulp, who knocked out eighth seed Arthur Fils 7-5, 6-4 earlier Monday. With Alcaraz already gone after a straight-sets loss to Zizou Bergs, the road through Shanghai looks a lot wider than it did at the start of the day.

Jodar sits 11th in the Race with Turin spots on the line. Beat van de Zandschulp and he is into a Masters quarterfinal with real points in reach. That is a massive match for a player who was not even on tour full time a year ago.