The threat

Nobody wanted to take Jodar in the first round and it ended up being De Jong

What can I say? Jodar is on fire right now and doesn’t seem ready to slow down yet, I think the sequence is perfect. Between Marrakech, Barcelona and now Madrid where the conditions are literally made for his style of play, I think he’s going to be very hard to beat again this week. I’d even go further and predict that in the next round he’ll face ADM, which is far from the worst draw, and I even wonder if he won’t be the favorite. Of course he still has to win this first round, but it almost looks like a formality given the Spaniard’s level. Add the altitude, the support of the crowd and an opponent who doesn’t win much, and that naturally makes him a clear favorite.

De Jong doesn’t seem all that dangerous right now either, only 6 wins this year and not a single performance close to Jodar’s level. Sometimes he has flashes in certain tournaments, he can hang with a top player but he loses often, it’s almost a guessing game to know when he’ll actually play well, I don’t see any clear pattern. In any case, even if Jodar will be at super low odds, I find it really hard to try De Jong who hasn’t shown anything good before this match.