Davidovich and the secret trick that helped him win the title in Shanghai

Behind every great victory and major title lies a master strategy that leads you to success. The victory of Alejandro Davidovich over Rafa Jódar in the final of the ATP Shanghai 2026 was a demonstration that tactics and physicality continue to hold immense importance in this sport; no matter how much they have been reduced at certain moments, intelligence on the court and knowing which paths to take based on your opponent's state can still take you far. This was proven by Foki, who faced a very adverse match script, not knowing how to hide from Jódar's onslaught in the first set... but ended up cutting the legs from under the Madrileño, being strong in crucial moments and delivering a third set that is nothing but a symptom of his renewed maturity.

To state that Alejandro Davidovich from last year would have lost this match seems hardly an exaggeration. Intelligence and mental fortitude in moments of pressure, two principles laid out that were once the Achilles' heels of the Málaga native. Today, a Foki transformed into a tank physically managed to turn the match against Rafa around, adjusting on the fly his position on the court and the trajectory of his shots. However, none of this would have made sense without four points that became turning moments: the two break points he saved at 4-4 and the other two he saved at 5-5 in the second set. The last two, moreover, were saved with two direct service points: also the serve, perhaps the softest shot in his repertoire, showed evolution today.

BIGGEST title of his career 🏆 Fokina completes the comeback 1-6 7-6 6-4 vs Jodar to become the Shanghai champ! @alexdavidovich1 #RolexShanghaiMasters https://t.co/vAB1PDJ8qA

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 18, 2026

The tactical adjustment of Foki that ended up destroying Jódar

After a nervous first set, completely at the mercy of a Jódar who was riding the wave of confidence and proposing from the baseline, Davidovich began to understand that his physicality could play a decisive role. He never lost sight of the match, even after going down a break in the early stages of the second set: he knew that his opportunity would come at some point and that his endurance was greater than Rafa's (the one from Leganés arrived at the match with 11 hours of tennis in this tournament, three more than Foki).

Thus, fueled by a better performance on serve, Davidovich fulfilled his first part of the deal in the tiebreak, a territory where he is becoming a specialist. Direct points with his serve, firmness to hit on the backhand side, and barely making errors, enough to show that Jódar’s fuel was running out, that the legs and arm of the Madrileño were no longer a perfect combination to hit winners from all angles.

In the third set, Davidovich doubled down on a bet he had started a few minutes earlier. The Málaga native set himself the goal of cutting down Jódar's legs, knowing that Rafa's physicality no longer allowed him to hit winning shots from the back. He took a step back, positioning himself more than two meters behind the baseline, and playing deep, returning absolutely everything and becoming a wall whose goal was always to put one more ball in play. Rafa, who could only find his serve as an ally, melted away like sugar in this scenario.

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The reason? The high-rev tennis of the Madrileño works if physicality and power are responsive... and both were at a minimum. The parallel backhand was hitting the mid-court, Davidovich out-energized him in every cross exchange and even the Málaga native began to hit a slice that forced Rafa to bend, making him suffer and causing several unforced errors. The tactic, of course, worked: despite attacking only 17% of his shots (Rafa did so at 29%), Foki was the master and lord of the set, going from 24% of shots beyond two meters from the baseline in the first set to an incredible 42% (!) in the third, nearly double his average on the tour.

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Some might think that this tactic on hard court must be an invitation to suicide: usually it is... but the context of the match, with a Jódar exhausted and unable to finish with his hammers from the back, cried out for punishing the physicality of the Madrileño. Thus, the 'wall mode' that the Madrileño entered was a guaranteed success: he won 48% of points in which he was in a defensive position (an absolute madness) and barely lost a long point since the start of the second set: in the first, Jódar had dominated exchanges of more than nine shots 7-0, finishing the match 14-8 for Foki.

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Intelligence, knowing how to be, and the ability to show your best version when the pressure is on. Successes, friends, do not come by chance: now Davidovich reaps the fruits of all the behind-the-scenes work of 2026, with Pepo Clavet surely very responsible for the tactical and mental evolution of the Málaga native. Foki must be thinking how much he loves it when plans work out... and today’s, in the Shanghai final that led him into the Olympus of this sport, went perfectly.

This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Davidovich y el truco secreto que le hizo conquistar el título en Shanghái