What must Jodar do in Montreal to secure historic Top 10 debut?
Rafael Jodar is on the brink of shattering a PIF ATP Rankings record.
The 19-year-old Spaniard will break into the Top 10 for the first time if he lifts his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title at the National Bank Open presented by Rogers in Montreal and Ben Shelton does not reach Thursday's final.
Jodar cracked the Top 100 for the first time on 30 March this year after reaching the third round in Miami. If he rises into the Top 10 on Friday, he will have climbed from No. 100 to No. 10 in just 140 days, smashing the previous record of 210 days set by Boris Becker in 1985, when the German was 18.
Jodar would also become the 20th-youngest player to enter the Top 10 in PIF ATP Rankings history (since 1973), and the first teenager to join that elite group since Holger Rune in 2022. The Spaniard would be the third-youngest active player to break into the Top 10, alongside former World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz and former World No. 4 Rune.
Victory in Canada would add another landmark to Jodar’s remarkable breakthrough season on the ATP Tour, which has already featured his first tour-level title in Marrakech and a quarter-final run at Roland Garros.
Jodar began the season at No. 150 in the PIF ATP Rankings. The lowest-ranked player at the start of a season to finish inside the Top 10 is Andre Agassi, who rose from No. 112 at the beginning of 1992 to No. 9 by year-end. Should Jodar break into the Top 10 and remain there through the end of the season, he would rewrite that mark.
Jodar is into the semi-finals in Montreal and will enter his clash against Brandon Nakashima on Wednesday holding a 34-12 record on the season, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index. The Spaniard, who is already up four places to No. 11 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings has just dropped one set in Canada, where he has defeated Arthur Fils, Jiri Lehecka, Lorenzo Musetti and Corentin Moutet.
Earlier this year, Jodar advanced to the last eight at Masters 1000 events in Madrid and Rome, while he reached the final at the ATP 500 event in Washington this month. Jodar competed at the Next Gen ATP Finals last December and defeated eventual champion Learner Tien in the round-robin stage. The 20-year-old American Tien is also still alive in Montreal and is currently up seven spots to No. 12 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings.
If Tien wins his first Masters 1000 crown, he would rise above Jodar and Shelton and into the Top 10 for the first time. The lefty meets current World No. 10 Shelton in the semi-finals on Wednesday.
Tien is chasing his second title of the season after triumphing on clay in Geneva. The 20-year-old has also advanced to the quarter-finals at the Australian Open and the last eight in Indian Wells in 2026.
