Alejandro Davidovich Fokina will not remember Toronto and Cincinnati for good. The Spaniard retired at both events, and his latest setback hurts the most!
Alejandro had a 7-6, 4-0, 30-0 advantage against Joao Fonseca in the second round in Cincinnati before dropping five straight games and retiring, propelling the young gun into the third round.
The more experienced player claimed a tight opener and provided two breaks at the beginning of the second set to forge a massive advantage. However, he lost pace and retired after dropping five games in a row.
They traded early breaks in the first set and served well after that for 4-4. Alejandro secured another break in game nine and served for the opener, only to suffer a break and keep his rival in contention.
The Spaniard delivered a mini-break in the first point of the tie break and won all points on serve for 7-4 and a boost. Fonseca lost serve two times in a row at the beginning of the second set to find himself 4-0, 30-0 down.
However, he started his comeback with a break in game five and delivered another two games later to reduce the gap. The young gun held at love for 4-4 and clinched his third straight break in game nine with a backhand down the line winner.
Davidovich Fokina ended the match at that moment, retiring for the second straight week and sending his rival over the top.
By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, August 8, 2025 Photo credit: Angel Martinez/Getty for ITF
Reigning Roland Garros champion Carlos Alcaraz aims to restore the roar to the Spanish Davis Cup team.
Captain David Ferrer has named Alcaraz, Washington, DC finalist Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Marcel Granollers and Pedro Martinez to the Spanish squad that will host Denmark in the Davis Cup second round qualifier set for September 13-14th at the Puente Romano Tennis Club in Marbella, Spain.
“I am very happy with the commitment that the players have made and with the enthusiasm that the team has to be able to overcome Denmark, which we already know is going to be a tough with Holger Rune,” Ferrer said. “But we are going to face it in the best way.
“Alejandro has been very consistent, he is in the Top 20 of the race and Carlos comes from winning Roland Garros and making the finals of Wimbledon, so I am very excited that they can be with us.”
The tie will be contested on outdoor red clay in Marbella.
World No. 2 Alcaraz, who owns a 3-0 Davis Cup singles record, will make his first appearance since he defeated Tallon Griekspoor 7-6, 6-3 in the 2024 quarterfinals last November.
The 22-year-old Spaniard is riding a streak of 13 straight clay-court victories, capturing successive clay championships at Roland Garros and Rome. Alcaraz’s last clay-court loss came to Danish star Holger Rune 7-6(6), 6-2 in the Barcelona final in April.
By Richard Pagliaro | Sunday, August 3, 2025 Photo credit: Tennis TV
Sounds of squealing sneakers reverberated around the Toronto court.
Alex de Minaur barely spoke a word during the decisive set today, but his Asic shoes wouldnāt shut up.
Bursting off the baseline with deep desire, de Minaur ran down drop shots to score the key break fending off Frances Tiafoe 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 to roar into his seventh quarterfinal of the season at the ATP 1000 National Bank Open.
A week after de Minaur denied three championship points to out-duel Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the Washington, DC final and capture his 10th career title, he lived up to his āSpeed Demonā nickname scoring his seventh straight win.
“There’s a lot of quick movers out there. Maybe this year I haven’t had to rely on it as much because I’m focusing on trying to be a little bit more aggressive,” de Minaur said. “Course, you know, there’s still plenty of hours that have been put on in the gym, off the court, to make sure that my footwork and speed is what it is.
“I like to think that it helps in defending and retrieving, but also it helps me in taking time away from my opponents. I’m using it to my advantage to get to the net very quickly and kind of anticipate the next shot. So it’s not only for defensive use, I’m also trying to use it in an aggressive nature as well.”
Itās a historic victory for de Minaurāhis 212th career hard court triumph equals two-time US Open champion Patrick Rafter for second on the Australian all-time list in the Open Era trailing only his Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt, who was 372-158 lifetime on his favored hard courts.
The ninth-seeded de Minaur will face either world No. 7 Ben Shelton or 17th-ranked Wimbledon quarterfinalist Flavio Cobolli for a semifinal spot. De Minaur is 2-0 lifetime against the 23-year-old Cobolli and has yet to face Shelton in a pro match.
Bouncing on his toes behind the baseline, de Minaur exuded more energy, clarity and consistency at the start today.
Tiafoe dragged a forehand wide and scattered a slice backhand gifting the Aussie the opening-game break.
A sound de Minaur rolled through 12 of the next 15 points, bleeding forehand errors from Tiafoe for a second straight break then holding at 15 to lead 4-0 after just 16 minutes of play.
Though Tiafoe earned a couple of break points in the sixth game, he couldnāt find the court on either break point. De Minaur drew a pair of forehand return errors extending his lead to 5-1.
The ninth-seeded Aussie served out the 37-minute opener at 15.
Elevating his first serve percentage from 39 percent to 59 percent in the second set, Tiafoe played more proactive tennis in the second.
The pair combined for four consecutive breaks to start the second set.
At 4-all, 30-40, Tiafoe fought off a break point then dug in to win the longest game of the set edging ahead 5-4.
Though de Minaur went up 30-love in the ensuing game, Tiafoe would not be denied. Ripping a forehand down the line and attacking at the right time, Tiafoe earned set point. The man from Maryland rattled out a framed forehand from his opponent snatching the second set with a raised fist.
After about a seven-minute bathroom break, Tiafoe returned revitalized in tearing through 12 of the first 14 points on serve to stake a 3-2 lead.
Tiafoe held double break point for a potential 4-2 lead, but de Minaur saved the first forcing a forehand miss. On the second break point, the pair produced one of the most dazzling points of the day. A 15-shot rally saw the Aussie nudge a half volley that Tiafoe ran down and poked a pass crosscourt. De Minaur recovered a ball behind him and hit a forehand into the open court to save the second break point. An ace down the T helped de Minaur level at 3-all.
Tiafoe was snapping the slice serve down the T as he stamped his second love hold of the set for 4-3.
Deadlocked at 4-all, Tiafoe showed the good, the bad and the downright crazy of his game. The good was three aces in the game. The bad was Foeās stubborn insistence on continuing to play the drop shot against one of the sportās fastest players. And the crazy was even after seeing de Minaur make those running retrievals and seeing the Aussie was hovering right near the baseline, Tiafoe kept indulging his drop-shot fixation.
At one point, de Minaur careened corner to corner like an ambulance driver answering a 911 call as he hit a full-stretch forehand followed by a running backhand then read the dropper and scrambled forward to retrieve prompting Tiafoe to push a half volley into net.
“It’s kind of, it’s part of my DNA, right, never to let a point go, no matter what position in the rally I’m in,” de Minaur said. “Yeah, today was a crucial example of what it can mean if you make that extra point, right.
It was a huge moment, it gave me a break point, and even though I wasn’t able to convert it, it really did send a message that I wanted that game. Yeah, I mean, I don’t have the biggest weapons out here, but one thing I can rely on is my legs.”
Youād think after seeing the Speed Demon pull off that spectacular series of running gets, the last shot on Tiafoeās mind would be the dropper.Ā
Well think again.
Inexplicably, a couple of points later, Tiafoe tapped a dropper that sat up, de Minaur easily ran it down and shoveled a forehand pass breaking for 5-4.
Still, de Minaur needed a bit of luck to end it hitting a net-cord winner for 30-5. The slider serve brought the Aussie match point and de Minaur closed on another forehand error from Tiafoe, whose forehand failed him at the wrong times today.
A terrific battle that included chair umpire Mo Lahyani advising a parent in the crowd to āplease give that baby some loveā in response to a crying child ended with a well-earned ovation after two hours, 24 minutes. De Minaur raised his record to 37-13 on the season, he is No. 3 on the Tour for most victories in 2025.
āTunnel vision,ā de Minaur wrote on the court-side camera, summing up another gritty win for the 2025 ATP hard-court win leader.
Andrey Rublev has certainly raised his level compared to recent months and his new collaboration with Marat Safin is helping him to find good feelings in view of the US Open scheduled for the end of the summer. The Russian ace had already put in a series of good performances during the Wimbledon Championships, where he had also put world number 2 Carlos Alcaraz in trouble by losing in four sets in the round of 16.
The player from Moscow also reached the round of 16 at the Toronto Masters 1000, after defeating Hugo Gaston in his debut and Italian star Lorenzo Sonego in the third round. Andrey – who reached the final in Montreal last year – made an excellent comeback against Sonego showing that he has recovered mental strength, but further tests will be needed to understand the real consistency of the Russian.
His next opponent will be Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who is playing very well at the moment and has no intention of stopping there. Rublev occupies the 11th position in the ATP ranking at the moment, but he is very close to the tenth position held by Lorenzo Musetti (who has already been eliminated by Alex Michelsen) and will overtake him by passing the next round.
Rublev does not like these courts
Meanwhile, the former Top 10 player gave a long interview to 'Tennis Channel' in which he highlighted how these courts leave little room for tactics and strategy.
As a spectator, I enjoy watching tennis on slower courts a lot more," the Russian champion revealed. "A lot of people think of Wimbledon courts as quite fast, but grass is a surface that allows you to play longer rallies and make the transition from defense to attack. There is more room for strategy and you can change tactics in relation to the score. It takes more intelligence and athletic fitness to prevail on those fields.
The situation is very different on hard courts. I watched the match between Medvedev and Popyrin and there were very few rallies from baseline. Although Daniil was in action, the point ended with the serve and another shot in most cases."
By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, August 1, 2025 Mubadala Citi DC Open Facebook
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina slammed ATP scheduling in Toronto.
Dan Evans delivered a stinging wake-up call to the Spaniard in response.
On his Instagram Stories, Evans called out Davidovich Fokina’s “pathetic” griping.
Reposting the Spaniard’s criticism, Evans posted “Wake up and play. The world wakes up and works 9-5 even 8-6. Pathetic.”
The Briton’s blunt response came after Davidovich Fokina, who suffered a gut-wrenching loss to Alex de Minaur in last week’s Washington, DC final, ripped the ATP scheduling his National Bank Open match for 11 a.m.
“Every match starts at 12:30 p.m., except ours, which has been scheduled for 11 a.m.,” Davidovich Fokina wrote on Instagram Stories.Ā “We’re staying one hour away from the club, which means that we have to wake up extremely early to arrive in good conditions. We asked for a change, but the answer was that everything was already sold: tickets, TV rights, etc. Once again, it’s clear that the players are not taken into consideration. The ATP always promises they’ll fix things, but nothing ever changes.”
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina has publicly criticized the ATP for what he sees as unfair and inconsiderate scheduling. The Spaniard expressed frustration after being assigned an 11:00 a.m. match at the Canada Masters in Toronto.
The recently-crowned top-20 player will open Friday's action alongside Jakub Mensik, an hour and a half earlier that all other matches that day, which are scheduled to begin at 12:30 or later!
Staying an hour away from the tournament venue, Alejandro emphasized the difficulty of preparing properly under such conditions. Davidovich Fokina's attempts to adjust the schedule were rejected.
La volea de todos los tiempos, cortesía de Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
The ATP cited tickets, TV rights and other logistical factors that prevent them from changing the schedule. The Spaniard argued that player well-being continues to be ignored, stating they are not taken into consideration.
The Washington finalist pointed out the inconsistency in scheduling, highlighting that he and his rival have to start the match at 11:00 while there are many courts available to make the schedule more even and flexible.
In a strong closing lines of his statement, Alejandro claimed the ATP regularly makes empty promises to fix issues. However, they remain only on paper, as nothing ever changes.
His post offers a rare glimpse into the frustrations competitors face behind the scenes and major stadiums, admitting it's not as great at t looks from the outside!
Alejandro wasted three match points against Alex de Minaur in a heartbreaking Washington final. The Spaniard cracked the top-20 with those points and defeated Corentin Moutet in the first match in Toronto.
Davidovich Fokina will seek his spot in the last 16 against the Miami Open champion, Jakub Mensik.
"Today, I want to share my disappointment and frustration with ATP. Tomorrow, every match starts at 12:30 except ours, which has been scheduled at 11:00.
We are staying one hour away from the club, which means we have to wake up extremely early to arrive in good condition. We have asked for a change, but the answer was that everything has already been sold, including tickets and TV rights.
Once again, it's clear that players are not taken into consideration. Today, it happens to others, tomorrow it's me, and from the day after, all matches return to 12:30. There are plenty of available courts, and yet we are the only ones playing at 11:00.
The ATP always promises they will fix things, but nothing ever changes. This is not the first time it has happened, and when you are inside, you realize it's not as great as it looks from the outside," Alejandro Davidovich Fokina wrote.
Dan Evans had no sympathy at all for Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and his issues at the Toronto Masters, ripping his complaints about an early match schedule as "pathetic."
While Thursday action was ongoing in Toronto, the tournament organizers released their schedule for the next day.
And Davidovich Fokina, who is seeded at No. 20 and slated to play Jakub Mensik in the third round, wasn't happy a bit after seeing that his clash was scheduled for 11 AM local time – which is the earliest possible match schedule. The 26-year-old Spaniard took to social media to blast the ATP authorities.
“Today I want to share my disappointment and frustration with the ATP. Tomorrow, every match starts at 12:30, except ours, which has been scheduled at 11:00. We’re staying one hour away from the club, which means we have to wake up extremely early to arrive in good condition. The ATP always promises they’ll fix things, but nothing ever changes. This isn’t the first time it happens, and when you’re inside, you realize that it is not as great as it looks from the outside," Davidovich Fokina wrote in the message.
Evans on Davidovich Fokina complaining about getting up very early: Pathetic
Evans, who is nine years older than Davidovich Fokina, literally had zero sympathy for the Spanish tennis player. Reacting to it through his Instagram account, the 35-year-old Briton pretty much told the 26-year-old he is in a privileged position and still complains.
“Wake up and play. The world wakes up and works 9-5, even 8-6. Pathetic," Evans wrote.
This is not the first time that Evans has blasted players' complaints about the tennis schedule and calendar. In one of his interviews conducted earlier this summer, the two-time ATP champion suggested that some of his colleagues are hypocrites because they want to earn as much as possible but still complain about playing a lot.
Meanwhile, Evans played at the Lexington Challenger this week, where he lost to Michael Zheng in the round-of-16. The 35-year-old has already appeared in 21 tournaments this year.
Alex de Minaur secured his tenth ATP title in Washington. The Aussie earned a memorable 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 victory over his coeval, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in three hours and three minutes!
The Spaniard had everything in his hands while chasing his first ATP title. He led 5-2 in the decider and served for the win at 5-3. He got broken, missed three match points on the return at 5-4 and suffered a heartbreaking loss that left him in tears.
The Aussie claimed 11 points more thanks to the second set. He played better behind the first serve and took the pivotal points to emerge at the top after a thriller.
Esto es el deporte.
De Miñaur consolando a un Davidovich totalmente roto, que se quedó nuevamente a un punto de ganar un título.
Alex denied five of eight break points, including those three match points. He secured four breaks from nine chances, two in the second set. They sprayed over 100 unforced errors.
De Minaur had the upper hand in service winners, from the baseline and at the net, earning his victory in style. They stayed neck and neck in the shortest and mid-range exchanges, and the better-ranked player made the difference in the most extended ones.
They battled for over an hour in the opening set. They traded breaks in games three and four and stayed neck and neck until 5-5. The Aussie missed a game point in game 11 and suffered a break after a backhand error.
Davidovich Fokina saved a break point at 6-5 and wrapped up the first part of the duel with a smash winner. De Minaur took charge in the second set, serving well and keeping the pressure on the other side.
He secured an early break in the second game and provided another break for 5-1. Alex fired an ace in the seventh game, closing the set in style and forcing a decider after an hour and 42 minutes.
Alejandro stepped in and produced four fine holds. He attacked on the return in game four and landed a backhand crosscourt winner for a break and a 3-1 advantage. The Spaniard held in game seven and moved 5-2 in front.
However, he failed to serve out for the title at 5-3, spraying a forehand error and allowing his rival to extend the battle. De Minaur faced the ultimate challenge on his serve at 4-5 after squandering game points.
The Aussie played against three match points, denying two with winners and the third with a forced error. He held for 5-5 and gained a boost ahead of the tie break. They traded four mini-breaks i the opening seven points.
Alejandro missed a forehand at 3-4 and experienced another mini-break after netting a routine forehand. De Minaur seized the first match point at 6-3 with an ace, sealing the deal and lifting his tenth ATP trophy after a turnaround.
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina will chase his first ATP title in a career in Washngton. The Spaniard bested Ben Shelton 6-2, 7-5 in the semi-final in an hour and 19 minutes, advancing to his fourth ATP final and the third of the season.
Davidovich Fokina left the home star behind in the opening set and grabbed three straight games in the closing stages of the second set for a notable victory. Alejandro will crack the top-20 with these points, regardless of the final outcome.
The Spaniard is 8-0 against left-handers in 2025. He is also the fourth player with five top-10 victories this season, joining Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Lorenzo Musetti on the exclusive list.
Après Taylor Fritz, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina élimine son deuxième TOP 10 du tournoi en sortant Ben Shelton (6-2, 7-5) pour atteindre la finale du tournoi ATP 500 de Washington. š„šŖšø
— Univers Tennis š¾ (@UniversTennis) July 27, 2025
Ben could not produce the magic behind the initial shot from the previous matches. He served at 55% and dropped42% of the points in his games. The home player faced six break points and got broken four times.
Alejandro dropped 14 points in ten service games, suffering one break in the second set and outplaying his rival. They sprayed too many unforced errors. The Spaniard tamed his strokes more efficiently and bested the top-10 star from the baseline.
They stayed neck and neck in the quickest exchange up to four strokes, and the lower-ranked player had the upper hand in the more advanced ones. Davidovich Fokina made a reliable start.
He served well in the opener and kept the pressure on the other side. Shelton sprayed a forehand error in the fifth game, losing serve and falling behind. The Spaniard cemented the lead with a forehand down the line winner in the next one.
A left-hander struggled again on serve in game seven and netted a forehand to experience another break and fall 5-2 behind. Alejandro landed an ace in the eighth game, wrapping up the opening set 6-2 in 27 minutes.
Ben played against a break point at 2-2 in the second set and saved it with a service winner. However, he played a loose drop shot two games later, losing serve and sending his rival 4-3 in front.
The Spaniard played his only loose service game in the next one, placing a forehand wide and losing serve to bring the home favorite back to the positive side.
Shelton sprayed a backhand error in the 11th game and got broken when his opponent painted a forehand down the line winner. Davidovich Fokina served for the win at 6-5 and fired a powerful serve for a hold at 15 and his fourth ATP final, the third of the season.
