Home wild card Arnaldi upsets De Minaur in thriller

Rafael Jodar handled the pressure of his latest milestone with composure on Friday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.

The rapidly emerging 19-year-old, competing as a seeded player on the ATP Tour for the first time, defeated Nuno Borges 7-6(4), 6-4 in the second round of the clay-court ATP Masters 1000 tournament. After edging a closely fought first set — winning four straight points from 3/4 in the tie-break — the 32nd seed took control to seal victory in one hour, 56 minutes.

“It was a very tough match,” Jodar said. “Nuno played very well from the first point, so I had to give my best level to win this match. I’ve played many matches in the last two tournaments, so I know I have to recover well and get ready for the next matches.”

Jodar has continued to gather momentum in his breakthrough season over the past month. The Spaniard captured his maiden ATP Tour title in Marrakech last month before advancing to the semi-finals in Barcelona and the quarter-finals in Madrid, where he fell to World No. 1 Jannik Sinner ahead of his debut appearance in Rome.

With these runs, Jodar has now compiled an outstanding 13-2 tour-level record on clay, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index. By advancing to the third round in Rome, the Spaniard is just the fourth teenager this decade to reach that stage, following Lorenzo Musetti (18) and Sinner (19) in 2020, as well as Jakub Mensik (19) in 2025.

Jodar competed at the 2025 Next Gen ATP Finals in December before turning professional. Just a year ago, he was ranked outside the world’s Top 650, but the 6’3” Spaniard has since surged to a career-high No. 34 in the PIF ATP Rankings.

Next up for Jodar is a maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with Italian wild card Matteo Arnaldi, who upset sixth seed Alex de Minaur 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 to reach the third round in Rome for the first time.

Arnaldi claimed an ATP Challenger title in Cagliari last week but had not won a tour-level match in 2026 prior to his run in the Italian capital. It marks the 25-year-old's sixth win over a Top-10 player, and first since defeating Novak Djokovic in Madrid last year.