Tennis can be a cruel, vicious sport. And Alejandro Davidovich Fokina suffered another agonizing episode of tennis horror yesterday in the final of the 2025 Mubadala Citi Open vs Alex deMinaur.
For the second time this year Fokina served for his first ATP title yesterday. Against deMinaur yesterday he put himself in the winning position with three championship points but still somehow lost. The same scenario happened to Fokina in February in the Delray Beach final vs Miomir Kecmanovic, who hit a netcord winner on one of his two match points down to survive.
Yesterday on the third championship point in the 54 game, deMinaur hit a defensive lob that caught the sideline, barely.
deMinaur ultimately completed the miraculous comeback from 2-5 down in the third set, saving three match points to defeat the luckless Spaniard 57 61 76(3) to win the Mubadala Citi Open championship, one of the biggest titles of his career.
deMinaur has a history of pulling off these astounding reversals. Twice vs. Andy Murray, two matches in a row deMinaur saved match points and came back to defeat Murray, who was in the final year of his ATP career. deMinaur just might be the most devastating player in the ATP right now for his uncanny ability to avert disaster and then claim miraculous victory. The Australian now has won ten ATP singles titles and will rise to 8 in the world in the rankings.
The two 26 year olds now have a 3-2 head to head series, lead by the Aussie grinder.
“It’s something about this court. I did it in 2018 against Rublev and honestly, I just kind of knew I could do it,” said the champion de Minaur, who saved four match points against Andrey Rublev that year but lost in the final to Alexander Zverev. “I just backed myself and I told myself to commit no matter what and if I lost this match it was going to be on my terms. Today it went my way. I’ve had a couple of brutal ones not go my way, so I’m glad this one went my way.”
Fokina has lost three ATP finals this year – Delray Beach, Washington and also Acapulco to Tomas Machac in March.
I can’t recall any player being so close yet so far from their first ATP title than Fokina.
Other examples of tennis trauma come to mind though…
Gasquet blowing ten match points vs Kyrgios at Wimbledon.
Spadea losing first round at I think it was 23 straight ATP tournaments.
Federer blowing those two championship points in the fifth set vs Djokovic at the Wimbledon 2019 final.
Mathieu serving or the Davis Cup vs Youzhny in the third set but then losing that game, the set, the fourth and fifth sets and ultimately the Davis Cup to Russia.
Guillermo Coria blowing championship point in the fifth set vs Gaudio in the French Open final after having a two set lead.
Rafael Nadal losing eight ATP finals in a row to Novak Djokovic.
adidas · Alejandro Davidovich Fokina · Alex de Minaur · Asics · Citi Open
Scoop Malinowski · July 28, 2025 at 1:30 pm
de Minaur’s pep talk after breaking his heart was a nice gesture and another imitation of Djokovic sportsmanship behavior.