ATP Tour

Carreno Busta on Jodar: 'He doesn't crumble under pressure'

Just days after clinching the US Open boys’ singles title, Rafael Jodar travelled to Valencia to join the Spanish Davis Cup team as a sparring partner. Among the players on captain David Ferrer’s team was Pablo Carreno Busta. Two years after meeting one another at that tie, the pair will now open their Lexus ATP Head2Head rivalry with a spot in the Roland Garros quarter-finals up for grabs.

Much has changed since then, particularly for the younger of the two. Back then, at 17, Jodar was a promising talent who had already caught Carreno Busta’s eye. “He was a skinny kid, obviously, but you could already see he played very well, even on an indoor court. With those levers, the big hitting, hogging the baseline, he was already showing real promise,” the Asturian recalls of his first impression of Jodar, now 19.

After his weeklong masterclass with Carlos Alcaraz, Roberto Bautista Agut, Marcel Granollers, Pedro Martínez and Carreno Busta himself, the Madrid native continued his journey away from the ATP Tour. Jodar chose to pursue college tennis, but his 2025 campaign on the ATP Challenger Tour convinced him he was ready to turn professional.

“Afterwards, he went to university and I think it did him a lot of good, because he developed a bit out of the spotlight, perhaps unlike [Joao] Fonseca, who’s the same age,” Carreno Busta noted of the pair born in 2006, a generation that also includes their countryman, Martin Landaluce.

“We’ve had Fonseca in the limelight for over a year now, but Jodar has come through a bit more under the radar, yet he’s made a huge leap in level and confidence very quickly,” Carreno Busta continued when assessing his upcoming opponent. “From the very start, we’ve seen he doesn’t crumble under pressure.”

Jodar has enjoyed a consistent first clay-court season on the ATP Tour, reaching the semi-finals in Barcelona, the quarter-finals in Madrid and the last eight again in Rome. In his first appearance at Roland Garros, Jodar has reached the second week by defeating Aleksandar Kovacevic, James Duckworth and Alex Michelsen.

But Carreno Busta, who is fifteen years older than his next challenger, has also produced some impressive performances in Paris. After a period plagued by injuries, he has now won three matches in a tournament again, beating 12th seed Jiri Lehecka, the Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis (who retired in the third set) and Argentina’s Thiago Agustín Tirante.

The last time the Asturias native advanced this far in a Grand Slam tournament was at the US Open in 2022, while his last deep run on the French clay came in 2021. Since then, a new wave of young talent has emerged, causing a stir at this year’s Roland Garros, including Jodar himself.

“I don’t know if I’m the ideal person to talk about this because I haven’t had consistent time on Tour for a while, so I can’t really see how the youngsters are training or what their days are like at these tournaments,” Carreno Busta explained before sharing his opinion. “It’s true, though, that a lot of young players are coming through now. I don’t mean players as young as [Moise] Kouame, who [had] a fantastic tournament here in Paris, but those who are 19, 20, 21 or 22, of which there are many.”

Carreno Busta noted that while many of those players are making their mark and have long, bright futures ahead of them, there is still plenty to learn.

“I don’t know what they’re being fed or what they’re working on, but it’s clear they’re coming through with a lot of hunger and power in their shots,” Carreno Busta said. “They play with a lot of joy and perhaps my generation is starting to show our age, although we still manage to find the old magic now and then.”

Whatever happens in Sunday’s second match on Court Suzanne-Lenglen (starting at 11 a.m. local time), there will be a Spaniard in this year’s Roland Garros quarter-finals.

Carreno Busta said: “It’ll be very special to play him.”