Rome, May 11 (IANS) Teenage star Rafael Jodar held off Italian wild card Matteo Arnaldi 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 to reach the fourth round of the Italian Open, an ATP Masters 1000 event, on debut.

After Arnaldi fought back to level the match, Jodar regrouped impressively from 1-3 down in the deciding set, reeling off five straight games to seal the victory in style.

With his two-hour victory, Jodar improved to 14-2 on clay in 2026, according to the ATP Win/Loss Index, highlighted by his maiden ATP Tour title in Marrakech, followed by a semi-final run in Barcelona and a quarter-final showing in Madrid.

“I’m very happy. It’s never easy to play an Italian here in Rome,” Jodar was quoted by ATP Tour. “I tried to play my tennis. Matteo played very well in the second and third sets, so I just tried to be there every point and accept whatever happened during the match.”

Competing as a seeded player on the ATP Tour for the first time this week, Jodar will next face reigning Next Gen ATP Finals champion Learner Tien.

Earlier in the day, Tien rallied past Alexander Bublik 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 to earn back-to-back ATP Tour wins for the first time since his run to the Indian Wells quarter-finals in March. The 20-year-old, now up to No. 19, is the youngest American man to reach the fourth round in Rome since Andy Roddick in 2002.

Elsewhere, Tmthe former world No. 2 Casper Ruud comfortably defeated Czech 11th seed Jiri Lehecka 6-3, 6-4 in exactly 80 minutes.

Now outside the Top 20, Ruud has a valuable opportunity to regain ranking points and momentum ahead of Roland Garros , where he hopes to replicate the success of 2022 and 2023, when he reached the final.

Meanwhile, the young Croatian qualifier Dario Prizmic, who stunned Novak Djokovic in the opening round, continued his dream run by defeating No. 31 seed Ugo Humbert of France 6-1, 7-5.

–IANS

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