Alejandro Davidovich Fokina trailed Rafael Jodar by a set and a break in Sunday’s Shanghai Masters final and won it anyway. The 27-year-old Spaniard came back to beat his 20-year-old countryman 1-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 in two hours and 28 minutes at Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena, taking the first Masters 1000 title of his career.
For a set, Jodar gave him nothing. The 12th seed broke in the second game, broke again with a clean backhand winner for 5-1 and closed out the opener without facing a break point on his own serve. He won all seven points that ran longer than nine shots.
Davidovich Fokina was a break down again at 2-3 in the second set when the match turned. He broke straight back on his second break point of the next game, sprinting forward to finish the point at the net and ending up sprawled across the court. Then he defended. He saved a break point to hold for 4-3, two more to hold for 5-4 and two more again to hold for 6-5, and, as he had against top seed Alexander Zverev in the semifinals on Saturday, he took the second set in a tie-break.
The decider opened with a break each. From there it was Davidovich Fokina who looked the fresher player. He broke again in the fifth game and kept the lead to the end, converting three of the seven break points he earned in the match. “I don’t have any words right now,” Davidovich Fokina said. “I have a blank mind. I don’t know what to say and I don’t know how I feel.
Just a huge relief. After the first set I had to keep trying, keep pushing, like every match in the tournament. In the tie-break, I believed in myself again and tried to play the ball. He was playing huge tennis. “In the third set, maybe I had a bit more fitness physically. He’s an amazing player and it was very tough to play against him today.”
The week. The final was the last of several escapes. Davidovich Fokina, the 25th seed, saved a match point against Frances Tiafoe in the third round and came from a set down to beat Hubert Hurkacz 1-6, 6-3, 7-6(6) in the fourth. Arthur Gea retired trailing 4-1 in their quarterfinal, and Davidovich Fokina came from a set down again to beat Zverev 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 in the semifinals.
He came to Shanghai on a run. Davidovich Fokina missed two months of the season with a back injury and returned to win the title in Chengdu in late September; Shanghai stretched his winning streak in China to 10 matches. He lost his first five tour-level finals, including his only previous Masters 1000 final, at Monte-Carlo in 2022. He has now won his last three: Mallorca, Chengdu and Shanghai.
“Of course I am very grateful for the team I have,” he said. “They’ve supported me every day for many years and of course this year was a tough one. Not only two months out, I also skipped a couple more tournaments this year with [other] injuries. So it was not an easy one.”
He also named a friend who had been through the same thing. “I remember now Arthur Fils, who is a very good friend of mine and skipped a lot of tournaments this year. He came back stronger, winning matches. So that gave me a lot of power, that if he could do it, I could do it too.”
Jodar. The final was Jodar’s first at Masters 1000 level and his first meeting with Davidovich Fokina. He reached it as the youngest semifinalist in the tournament’s history, having come from a set down in four straight matches, and then beat 2019 champion Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 6-4 on Saturday without dropping a set. He finished that one on his own serve, putting away a forehand down the line off a weak Medvedev smash. Earlier in the week he had beaten Casper Ruud in the quarterfinals, a run covered in our semifinal line-up report.
What it means. The runner-up points still move Jodar toward a debut at the ATP Finals in his first full season. He leaves Shanghai ninth in the Live Race to Turin on 3,159 points, behind Fils on 3,325. With Jannik Sinner out for the rest of the season, ninth is effectively the last of the eight qualifying places. Alex de Minaur, on 2,880, and Novak Djokovic, on 2,840, are the nearest players below him. The full picture is in our Race to Turin guide, and the rules for replacements are in ATP Finals alternates explained.
For Davidovich Fokina, the title is the biggest of a season that has now produced three. Zverev’s semifinal loss to him is covered in our semifinal report.
What’s next. Shanghai was the penultimate Masters 1000 event of the year. The last is the Paris Masters, which closes the regular season’s run of 1000-level events before Turin. Tournament history and past champions are in the Shanghai Masters guide.
