Davidovich Fokina Stuns Zverev In Shanghai, Will Face Jodar In All-Spanish Final

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (photo: Rolex Shanghai Masters)

SHANGHAI/WASHINGTON, October 17, 2026 (by Michael Dickens)

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina has reached his first ATP Masters 1000 final in four years – and after taking out top seed Alexander Zverev to reach the Rolex Shanghai Masters title event, the wait was certainly worth it.

The 26th-ranked Davidovich Fokina from Spain won his ninth-straight match in China Saturday evening with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 victory over the World No. 2 Zverev of Germany in two hours and two minutes on Stadium Court at Qi Zhong Tennis Center to advance to his second career ATP Masters 1000 final.

On Sunday, the Spanish Armada will take over Shanghai as Davidovich Fokina will face a fellow Spaniard, World No. 13 Rafael Jodar, in the title match. Jodar fought off World No. 6 and fifth seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia, 6-3, 6-4, in one hour and 43 minutes in the second semifinal to attain his first ATP Masters 1000 final.

Despite losing a close opening set, the No. 25 seed Davidovich Fokina didn’t get too down on himself. Instead, he remained positive and went to work against Zverev, who had won six of their first seven meetings – including the last three. Davidovich Fokina broke Zverev to win the second set, then took advantage of a double fault by the German No. 1 as the third set unfolded. He remained aggressive throughout and won on his third match-point opportunity. It was Davidovich Fokina’s sixth Top-5 win of his career – and the first one this season.

Davidovich Fokina won 85 percent (58 of 68) of his first-serve points, hit 36 winners to 21 unforced errors, compared to 28 winners – including 18 aces – and 20 unforced errors by Zverev. Davidovich Fokina converted two of six break points and outpointed Zverev 96-82.

The loss denied Zverev of achieving his second ATP Masters 1000 title berth this season after losing the Madrid final to Jannik Sinner. On the strength of winning a tour-leading 62 matches, as well as two major titles at Roland-Garros and the US Open, Zverev has already clinched the ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by PIF honors.

“I mean, I think, first, I’m not a robot, I’m a human being I get tired,” Zverev said, smiling, during his post-match news conference. “It’s like this.

“After the US Open, I had one day off in total. I think I played a lot of tennis, which is very, very positive because that means I played well.

“I think even here I had tough matches. I personally feel like I was quite flat since the [Alexander] Bublik match, because I was losing energy.

“I played a phenomenal match against Alex de Minaur, but today I was flat. Even in the first set, even though I won the set, I was flatter; I was not reacting so well. I was returning quite badly. But I think, again, we’re all human beings, even the best players in the world. …

“Credit to [Alejandro], he played the way he was supposed to play. He played a pretty good match, I thought.”

Davidovich Fokina, who three weeks ago won his second ATP Tour title of the season in Chengdu, improved his win-loss record this season to 32-16, while Zverev dropped to 62-15. The Spaniard’s run in Shanghai has included a pair of wins over World No. 10 Frances Tiafoe of the United States and – in which he saved a match point – and No. 34 Hubert Hurkacz of Poland, both decided in third-set tie-breaks. He has moved up 11 spots to No. 15 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings.

“It doesn’t matter the result, I am just thinking about every ball,” Davidovich Fokina said during his on-court interview with ATP Media. “I knew that if I stayed there all match, I could get at least one chance and I took it there in the second set. Then in the third set, I think I was better physically. The early break in the third set gave me a lot of power. I focused on just playing, not mattering about the result but enjoying.”

On Sunday, as Davidovich Fokina goes after his first ATP Masters 1000 title, after losing the 2022 Monte-Carlo final against Stefanos Tsitsipas, he will face the 12th-seeded Jodar, who is through to his first ATP Masters 1000 final in what has been a breakout season for the 20-year-old from Madrid. It will be the ninth all-Spanish ATP Masters 1000 final in series history (since 1990) – first on a hard court – and first since 2017 at Monte-Carlo, when Rafael Nadal defeated Albert Ramos-Viñolas.

Jodar, who captured three of the final four games of his semifinal, won on his fourth match-point opportunity after an hour and 44 minutes of play. He swatted a forehand passing shot winner that landed past an outstretched Medvedev to cap a seven-shot rally. It resulted in his 43rd victory of the season. Jodar, who became the youngest semifinalist in tournament history and the second man to rally from a set down four times to reach an ATP Masters 1000 semifinal, garnered the biggest win of his career against Medvedev. He’s also the second-youngest man to record 20 ATP Masters 1000 wins in a season after Nadal, who was 19 in 2005 when he captured 28 wins.

“It was a very tough match,” Jodar said during his on-court interview with ATP Media. “In the first set all the games were very close, break points for him and break points for me. I am super happy with how I handled the important moments in the first set and how I served and returned. Daniil is a very tough player. He played great today, so I had to play my best level to play him.”

Medvedev, who was the only former Rolex Shanghai Masters champion among the semifinalists, was chasing after his first ATP Masters 1000 title since winning at Rome in 2023. He finished his China campaign 11-2 this year following a title victory at Hangzhou and semifinal runs in Beijing and Shanghai. The 30-year-old Medvedev leads the ATP Tour in hard court wins this season with 34.

“He played good today. He was returning well. I think I could have been a bit better on my serve in terms of spots,” Medvedev said of Jodar, during a post-match mixed zone interview. “But also, yeah, he did put a lot of pressure on the return, and I think that was the difference, he was better on the return than I was.

“Yeah, great player. I mean, he’s Top 10, so it’s not like he’s 60 in the world and we’re starting to talk about him. He’s a Top-10 player, we never know who wins 25 Grand Slams, six, one, two, let’s see.”

 

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Jodar hit 22 winners to offset 22 unforced errors, converted four of seven break points while saving four of six break points he faced from Medvedev. He outpointed his opponent 73-61.

Saturday’s semifinal victory boosted Jodar’s chances of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals at the end of the season. He’s currently in ninth place in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin – effectively the final qualification spot with second-place Jannik Sinner out for the remainder of the 2026 season due to a knee injury. Jodar has moved 279 points ahead of Alex de Minaur for the final spot. If he beats Davidovich Fokina in Sunday’s final, he would leap to sixth place. He can also climb into the Top 10 in the PIF ATP Rankings by winning the Shanghai title.

Around the Rolex Shanghai Masters

In doubles, Lucas Miedler and Neil Oberleitner of Austria, playing together in their first ATP Masters 1000 this week in Shanghai, have advanced to the final after defeating Jakob Schnaitter and Mark Wallner of Germany, 7-5, 6-3, in one hour and 14 minutes on Stadium Court. The Austrian duo outpointed their opponents 65-52 in a match-up between unseeded teams.

The Austrians have put together a perfect week in just their third tour-level event overall, after teaming at the Davis Cup and at the Japan Open in Tokyo earlier this month. They have not dropped any sets and now they will face unseeded Francisco Cabral of Portugal and JJ Tracy of the United States in Sunday’s title match.

“I know [Francisco] pretty well,” said Miedler, who won the Brisbane title with Cabral last January, quoted by the ATP Tour website. “We played for one year. He was one of my best friends on Tour, so I think there are no big secrets tomorrow. I’m looking forward to playing him.”

Added Oberleitner: “I think the good thing is we stayed composed; we stayed aggressive. We knew our game; we knew what we can do. Today, we had a couple of chances that we didn’t use, but we still, we stayed calm and composed, and I think that’s what made us successful this week, and hopefully we can carry on tomorrow.”

Saturday’s Shanghai Masters results

Sunday’s Shanghai Masters order of play

By the numbers

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina is the fourth lowest-ranked Shanghai finalist after No. 204 Valentin Vacherot and No. 54 Arthur Rinderknech last year and No. 29 Gilles Simon in 2014.

“Quotable …”

“At the end, it is not easy when you are out, you have a lot of time to think. We are very privileged to be here and play this sport. This time gave me a lot of thinking time to think what I want to do with my future.”

– Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain, during his on-court interview after defeating top seed Alexander Zverev of Germany to reach his first ATP Masters 1000 final since losing the 2022 Monte-Carlo title match. Davidovich spoke about returning to the ATP Tour after missing the entire North American hard-court swing due to a back injury.

 

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