Alejandro Davidovich Fokina is a strange player. He is ranked 15 in the world but was snubbed off the Spanish Davis Cup team by captain David Ferrer. Fokina is the second highest ranked Spaniard after no. 1 Carlos Alcaraz and the third highest ranked is Jaume Munar at no. 36, fourth is Pedro Martinez at 92.
Fokina, 42-25 on the year, has also lost in three finals this year, the first two with championship points in each (Delray Beach vs Kecmanovic and Washington vs deMinaur, and then Basel vs Fonseca).
The pattern of oddity continues.
Jimmy Arias revealed on today’s Tennis Channel broadcast of Rolex Paris Masters that earlier this year at a tournament Fokina which he commentated on, Fokina suddenly retired. Later that day, Arias saw Fokina in the player cafeteria in line getting his meal. Arias asked Fokina, “Were you cramping?” Fokina answered, “no.” Then a follow up: “Were you injured?” “No” again from Fokina. Arias then said, “Okay, good luck.” Today on the air, Arias said, “I don’t trust Davidovich Fokina to come with his best today.”
Right now at this moment, Fokina has lost the first set of his match today vs Valentin Royer of France.
Fokina retired twice this year, In Canada vs Rublev R16 76 67 03 and then the next week in Cincy R64 vs Fonseca 76 45. He then played US Open, beat Shevchenko 61 61 62 and the lost to Rinderknech in five sets.
Fokina’s final failures this season are historic.
Tennis Players with 100% Losses in Finals During a Season (1990-2025/Men’s Singles):
Cedric Pioline | 0-5 (1993)
Sergi Bruguera | 0-4 (1997)
Tim Henman | 0-4 (1999)
Pete Sampras | 0-4 (2001)
Nicolas Kiefer | 0-4 (2004)
Ivo Karlovic | 0-4 (2014)
Alejandro Davidovich | 0-4 (2025)
(Minimum: 4 finals)
There’s no doubt Davidovich Fokina is a wonderful player to watch… and one of the most enigmatic.
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina · Diadora · Head · Jimmy Arias · Spain
Steve · October 28, 2025 at 6:55 pm
ADF is a fascinating player. Remember his underarm serve nightmare against Rune at Wimbledon? I believe it was tiebreak in the 5th set.
He’s also had some great matching against FAA. He’s got a stellar game, is edgy but takes unpredictable, head-scratching decisions.
Did you catch Norrie vs. Carlos? From the highlights it seems Norrie played the match of his life. He was truly in the zone.
Scoop Malinowski · October 28, 2025 at 8:47 pm
ADF is a different player. He’s also one of the very few if not only player who alternates from headbands to hats back and forth, no other player does this. Haven’t seen Norris vs Carlos yet. He’s had a bounce back this year but still a ways to go to return to top ten. He may be the most overachieving top ten player of all time.