Alejandro Davidovich Fokina has won the 2026 Rolex Shanghai Masters. In Sunday's all-Spanish final he beat Rafael Jodar 1-6 7-6(5) 6-4, after losing the first set and falling a break behind in the second. It is his first Masters 1000 title and the biggest of his career.
The win is worth 1,000 points. In the site's live ranking Davidovich Fokina climbs to No. 14 with 2,880 points, level with Taylor Fritz. According to the ATP, on Monday he will be No. 13 in the official rankings: a new career high. Jodar takes 650 points and stays at No. 11, 16 points behind Arthur Fils in tenth.
For the 20-year-old Jodar, the final was also the gateway to the Top 10. Winning it would have been enough to break in for the first time. The door is still ajar: the gap to Fils is tiny, and the European indoor swing still offers big points.
The start belonged entirely to Jodar. A break in the second game, another for 5-1, and the first set closed 6-1 without a contest. According to the ATP, Jodar faced no break points in the opener and won all seven rallies longer than nine shots.
In the second set the match looked settled. Jodar broke his compatriot again and found himself a set and a break up. Davidovich Fokina hit back straight away with the re-break, the first real crack in the younger man's game.
From there a different final began. Davidovich Fokina saved a break point at 4-3, two at 5-4 and two more at 6-5, always serving under pressure. The tie-break was the turning point: he won it 7-5 and sent the final into a third set.
In the decider the two traded breaks in the early games. Then Davidovich Fokina broke Jodar in the fifth game and never gave it back. After two hours and 28 minutes he closed it out 6-4.
"I don't have any words right now, I have a blank mind," Davidovich Fokina said after the final, in comments reported by the ATP. On the turning point: "In the tie-break, I believed in myself again and tried to play the ball. He was playing huge tennis."
It was the first meeting between the two. Two different stories: Davidovich Fokina is 27 and a long-time regular on the main tour, while Jodar is 20 and a year ago was still playing Challengers. The site records his win at the Lincoln Challenger in 2025.
For Davidovich Fokina it is the end of a curse. Until this year he had lost all five finals he had played on the main tour, including Monte Carlo in 2022, his only Masters 1000 final before Shanghai. In 2026 he has won three finals out of three: Mallorca, Chengdu and now Shanghai.
His week was a string of comebacks. In his opener he beat Jenson Brooksby 6-1 6-3. Then he got past Frances Tiafoe 7-6(4) 4-6 7-6(6), saving a match point according to the ATP. In the round of 16 he turned around Hubert Hurkacz 1-6 6-3 7-6(6).
In the quarter-finals Arthur Gea retired with the Spaniard leading 4-1. The semi-final brought the biggest win before the final: top seed Alexander Zverev, beaten 5-7 6-4 6-3. There too, as in the final, Davidovich Fokina had lost the first set.
Jodar's path was just as solid. In the second round he beat Thiago Agustin Tirante 4-6 6-2 6-3, in the third Jiri Lehecka 4-6 7-6(2) 6-4 and in the round of 16 Botic Van De Zandschulp 6-7(4) 6-4 6-2. Three comebacks in a row before the second week.
In the quarter-finals he came from behind against Casper Ruud too, 4-6 6-4 6-3. The semi-final, by contrast, was smooth: Daniil Medvedev beaten 6-3 6-4. "I think I'm having the right mentality, and I am playing well here in Shanghai," he said after that match, according to the ATP.
Jodar's season remains exceptional. The site records his final at the ATP 500 in Washington and his semi-final at the Montreal Masters 1000; according to the ATP he won his first title in Marrakech. He leaves China ninth in the Race to the Finals in Turin, just inside the qualifying places.
Shanghai has a new champion for the third year running. In 2025 Valentin Vacherot won it, beating Arthur Rinderknech 4-6 6-3 6-3 in the final. In 2024 it was Jannik Sinner's turn, 7-6(4) 6-3 over Novak Djokovic, and in 2023 Hubert Hurkacz's against Andrey Rublev.
It was a long and hard-fought tournament. There were 173 matches, with 91 tie-breaks and 69 matches decided in a final set. The longest was the clash between Yannick Hanfmann and Kamil Majchrzak, settled 6-7(4) 7-6(3) 7-6(7) after 39 games.
Spain arrived in Shanghai with seven players and put two in the final. No nation did better, ahead of the United States, who with twelve players were the most numerous in the draw but went no further than the quarter-finals.
Now the tour moves to Europe for the indoor season. For Jodar the Top 10 is one step away; Davidovich Fokina has a new ranking to defend: over the next six weeks he has 430 points coming off, few compared with the 1,000 he has just earned.
Test yourself
3 questions on what you have just read.
1. What was the score of the final?
2. Who did Davidovich Fokina beat in the semi-final?
3. Who won Shanghai in 2025?