Alejandro Davidovich Fokina who is chasing his first ATP tour title at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco beat Denis Shapovalov 7-6(3), 7-6(1) on Friday to advance to his third tour-level final.
The unseeded Spaniard won eight straight points in a show-stopping final burst after two epic sets full of twists and turns each lasting more than an hour.
Davidovich Fokina, who is No. 48 in the ATP Rankings is competing in his first event since missing out on two championship points earlier this month in Delray Beach.
His victory ended Shapovalov’s eight-match winning streak, the longest run of the Canadian’s career, which dated back to the start of his Dallas title run.
“The match was so tight,” the Spaniard said after levelling the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series at 1-1. “The first set maybe he deserved it more. The second set I deserved it maybe. But at the end I didn’t lose the fight against him because I was ready for everything at the end.
“It’s not every day I’m in the semi-finals of [an ATP] 500. I’m very happy how I fought back for the first set and how I continued in the second set. It was not easy when he came back.”
He will next face Tomas Machac in Saturday’s final, with both men seeking their maiden ATP Tour title.
Machac advanced to his biggest career final — and his second overall (Geneva 2024) — with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 victory against Brandon Nakashima.
The eighth seed is the second Czech finalist in tournament history, after Jiri Novak won the 1998 title and finished runner-up in 1996 when the event was held on clay in Mexico City. Machac is also the fourth Czech ATP 500 finalist after Tomas Berdych (five times), Radek Stepanek (twice) and Jiri Vesely (once).
With the title, Machac could become the first Czech in the Top 50 of the PIF ATP Rankings since Tomas Berdych in June 2018. He is up three places to No. 22 this week in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, setting himself up for a new career high.
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