Jannik Sinner cruises past Rafael Jodar in Madrid Open QF

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

World No. 1 Jannik Sinner brought out the brooms after sweeping Spain’s Rafael Jodar, 6-2, 7-6, during the quarterfinal stage of the ongoing Madrid Open on April 30, 2026, at Caja Magica in Spain.

With another knockout-round win, the Italian stalwart formalized his seat in the semifinal round of the tournament, arranging a highly anticipated clash against Arthur Fils of France, who earlier took down Jiri Lehecka in the other bracket’s quarterfinal.

Sinner began his quarterfinal bid with back-to-back early break points, backed by a tremendous baseline defense that neutralized Jodar’s wide forehand angles.

Known as a heavy topspin specialist, Jodar never used that groundstroke to his advantage as Sinner wisely attacked his backhand side with deep flat forehand bombs.

Aside from his consistent baseline efficiency, Sinner also dominated Jodar with booming service games, tallying six aces in just two sets of action.

Just when Sinner thought the following set would be another day in the office, Jodar spoiled the majority’s expectations after going toe-to-toe to force a surprising tiebreaker round.

To drag the second set to a tiebreaker, Jodar held all of his service games and never blinked, leaning on a more stable toss angle to regain his striking power.

However, Sinner closed out the tiebreaker with a clinical tennis masterclass, unleashing three consecutive baseline winners to take a comfortable 3-0 advantage.

As the tiebreaker progressed, Jodar fell flat and got exhausted, conceding four more points, which resulted in a one-sided victory for Sinner.

In just over an hour and 26 minutes of tennis, Sinner recorded 86 total points won, 32 on the return, including two break points and six aces.

Sinner’s grand final dreams will be tested today, as his semifinal knockout showdown against Fils is scheduled at center court of Caja Magica at 4 p.m.