In addition to the success of winning a Grand Slam, the US Open champion title last summer gave Rafa Jódar the opportunity to participate this fall in the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finalsthe Junior Category Finals of the International Tennis Federation. The 17-year-old from Madrid will compete from this Wednesday to Sunday in Chengdu (China), with the best tennis players in the world in the category.
Jodar, who was with Spain as a sparring partner in the group stage of the Davis Cup Finals in Valenciaplays in group A with the Dutch Mees Rottering, the Czech Jan Kumsat and the Australian Hayden Jones, the first seed. In B are the Romanian Luca Preda, the Czech Maxim Mrva, the British Charlie Robertson and the South Korean Kim Jangjun, who replaces the Greek Theo Papamalamis. Rafa, third Spanish competitor in the tournament after Jaume Munar (8th in 2015) and Álvaro López San Martín (6th in 2016), makes his debut around 07:00 against Kumsat in a match that can be followed live through the website of the ITF.
The competition system consists of a group stage in which they play all against all from October 16 to 18. The first two in each group advance to the semifinals, final and third and fourth place, and the last two also play for fifth to eighth, so all participants are guaranteed to play five games. Among the champions of previous editions, Andrey Rublev (2015), Emil Ruusuvuori (2017), Brandon Nakashima (2018) and Holger Rune (2019) stand out. After a three-year interruption due to the coronavirus pandemic, Joel Schwaerzler was champion last year.
At the same time as the men’s tournament, the women’s tournament is also held in Chengdu on the same dates, with Belgian Jeline Vandromme as the main favorite. and a sister of one of the participants in the boys competition, the Australian Emerson Jones.
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