Shanghai Tennis Masters ends with Fukina winning Masters title for the first time

China News Service, Shanghai, October 18 (Reporter Miao Lu) The 2026 Shanghai Tennis Masters concluded on the evening of the 18th. In the men's singles event, Spanish player Alejandro Davidovic Fokina defeated compatriot Rafael Hodar with a big score of 2:1 (1:6, 7:6, 6:4) to win the championship. This was the first Masters championship in his career, and he became the first Spanish men's singles champion in the history of the Shanghai Tennis Masters.

Spanish tennis has a profound clay soil heritage. The "Spanish Derby" was staged for the ninth time in the history of the Masters finals and for the first time in the history of the hard-court Masters finals.

The 27-year-old Fokina has been in hot form recently. In the 2026 China season, he first won the 2026 Chengdu Open, and then successively eliminated Tiafoe, Hulkac, Zverev and other giants in Shanghai, and reached the Masters final again after the 2022 Monte Carlo Masters. On the other side, the 20-year-old Hodahl staged comebacks in four consecutive games, and eliminated the 2019 tournament champion Medvedev in straight sets in the semi-finals, reaching the Masters final for the first time in his career.

Fukina is good at the multi-shot tug-of-war that combines long and short attacks. He often drags his opponents into attrition battles and is more able to take the initiative. Hodahl is used to standing more forward in the game and likes to end rounds efficiently with a fast pace.

The two sides have never met before. In the first set, Hodahl took the lead in entering the state, continued to put pressure on his opponent's serve, and took the lead in breaking serve with his extremely aggressive return. Then he held on to his own serve and won the first victory at 6:1.

The turning point came in the second set. The two sides held serve in the first four games to tie at 2. Hodahl broke serve first in the fifth game, and Fokina immediately broke back to retaliate. After that, the two players did not break serve in the next six games, and the game was dragged into a tie-break. The tie-break was fiercely contested, and Fokina won 7:5, evening the score.

In the final set, Hodal's physical fitness declined significantly and his left leg suddenly cramped. After Fokina broke serve at the beginning, Hodar won two consecutive games to overtake him. However, he stabilized his position and won three consecutive games to establish a 4:2 advantage. After that, both sides maintained serve, and Fokina secured the victory at 6:4. The entire match lasted 2 hours and 27 minutes.

Fokina said after the game that today's game was extremely difficult and the opponent played at a very high level. "I played very tight and even more nervous throughout the game. In the first set, I couldn't find any chance to score a winning point. His running covered the whole court, and his serve and return were of extremely high quality. I tried my best. In the tie-break of the second set, I regained my confidence. The key to my victory today is my physical advantage, which is my only chance today."

In the men's doubles, the Austrian pair of Lucas Midler and Neil Oberleitner defeated the pair of Frascisco Cabral and James Tracy with a big score of 2:0 (6:3, 6:4) to win the championship. Both of them won the Masters championship trophy for the first time in their careers.