completed a stirring comeback on Sunday to win the Rolex Shanghai Masters, defeating fellow Spaniard Rafael Jodar 1-6, 7-6(5), 6-4. The victory gave the 27-year-old from Malaga his first ATP Masters 1000 title, just weeks after a back injury forced him off the tour for two months. He sealed the win in 2 hours and 28 minutes, earning $1,151,380 in prize money and 1,000 ranking points. The ATP confirmed he will climb to a career-high world No. 13 when the new rankings are released on Monday.
Rafael Jodar, 20, controlled the opening set without facing a break point and moved ahead 3-2 in the second. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina immediately broke back, then survived five break points across three service games before claiming the tiebreak. He broke again in the fifth game of the deciding set to close out the match. The performance capped a week in which he repeatedly dug himself out of trouble.
“I have a blank mind. I don’t know what to say, and I don’t know how I feel. Just a huge relief,” Davidovich Fokina said. “In the third set, maybe I had a bit more fitness physically,” he added.
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina’s route to the title included several close calls. He saved a match point against Frances Tiafoe in the third round and came from a set down to beat both and top seed Alexander Zverev. Notably, he became the first Spaniard to win the Shanghai event. The title extended his winning streak in China to 10 matches after he also lifted the Chengdu Open in late September.
As a junior, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina won the Wimbledon boys’ title in 2017. As a professional, however, he lost his first five tour-level finals, including the 2022 Monte-Carlo Masters final. In the 2025 Washington final, he held three championship points before falling to and was left in tears. His first title arrived at the sixth attempt in Mallorca in June, when he beat Ethan Quinn 7-6(4), 6-3.
“In the end I knew that this one has to be mine, in Spain, at home, the first one,” he said afterwards, according to the . He has now won three finals in a row.
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina first felt back pain during his opening match at Wimbledon. A later scan revealed a disc protrusion that he described as “almost hernia,” according to the official tournament transcript. He competed in Umag, Croatia, in July before stopping and missing Cincinnati and the US Open.
“Mentally it was very tough,” he said, according to the transcript.
He returned in Chengdu and claimed the title by beating Hurkacz 6-4, 7-6(7). After Sunday’s final, he thanked his team and credited his friend Arthur Fils, who also missed events this year through injury.
The Shanghai triumph marks a clear turning point for Alejandro Davidovich Fokina after years of near-misses and a difficult injury recovery. With a career-high ranking now within reach, he heads into the final stretch of the season with renewed momentum.
