COLUMBUS, Ohio – Virginia men’s tennis sophomore Rafael Jódar is playing in the Columbus Challenger Sept. 15-21 at the Ty Tucker Tennis Center.
Jódar opened the tournament with a 6-3, 6-2 win against the No. 4 seed, Nicolas Mejia of Colombia, before topping No. 315 Alex Rybakov 6-3, 6-4 in the Round of 16.
Jódar fell 6-1, 6-5 against Daniel Masur of Germany in the quarterfinals on Friday (Sept. 19).
Mejia, at a No. 201 ATP world ranking, is the highest-ranked player Jódar has defeated. Jódar moved up to a career-best ATP ranking of No. 325 on Monday (Spet. 15) after making the semifinals at last week’s Winston-Salem Challenger.
Jódar is 25-9 in ATP Challenger and ITF World Tennis Tour matches this year and 12-2 in his last 14 matches. This is the seventh time this year he has advanced to the singles quarterfinals of a Challenger.