Alejandro Davidovich Fokina beats Rafael Jodar 1-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 in the final of the Shanghai Masters on Sunday 18 October 2026, in 2 hours 28 minutes. A set and a break down, the 27-year-old Spaniard wins the first Masters 1000 title of his career, and becomes the tournament's first Spanish champion.
The day before: Davidovich Fokina knocks out Zverev, Jodar beats Medvedev, an all-Spanish final.
How did Davidovich Fokina turn the final around against Jodar?
By surviving the second set. Jodar runs away with the first 6-1: he breaks his compatriot in the second game, then again for 5-1 with a backhand winner, without facing a break point, and wins all seven rallies of more than nine shots.
In the second set, Davidovich Fokina is still a break down at 2-3. He breaks straight back, rushing the net on his second break point of the game, then saves five break points to hold serve: one at 3-3, two at 4-4, two at 5-5. He takes the tie-break 7-5.
The third set opens with an exchange of breaks. Davidovich Fokina breaks Jodar again in the fifth game and holds serve from there. In all, he converts three of his seven break points.
"I don't have any words right now," said Davidovich Fokina after match point. On the deciding set: "Maybe I had a bit more fitness physically."
What does this title mean?
It is the third title of his career, and the biggest. Davidovich Fokina lost his first five tour-level finals, including Monte-Carlo in 2022 against Stefanos Tsitsipas; he has won the three since, in Mallorca, Chengdu and Shanghai. Out for around two months with a back injury before Chengdu in late September, he has now won ten matches in a row in China.
In Shanghai, he saves a match point against Frances Tiafoe, comes back from a set down to beat Hubert Hurkacz and then top seed Alexander Zverev, and goes through the quarter-finals when Arthur Gea retires.
Spain finally has a Shanghai champion, the only one of the nine Masters 1000 events it was missing. Rafael Nadal (2009 and 2017), David Ferrer (2011) and Roberto Bautista Agut (2016) all lost in the final there. It is also the ninth all-Spanish Masters 1000 final, and the first on hard courts.
Where do the two players stand in the ATP rankings?
Davidovich Fokina, 26th when he arrived, climbs thirteen places to a career-high No. 13 on Monday 19 October.
Jodar, 20, climbs two places and equals his career high at No. 11: a win would have taken him into the top 10. He leaves Shanghai ninth in the Race, just inside the qualifying cut for the year-end Finals in Turin.
Sources
ATP Tour — Alejandro Davidovich Fokina digs deep to stop Rafael Jodar in Shanghai final
The Sports Encounter — Shanghai Masters: Jodar, Davidovich Set All-Spanish Final