Alejandro Davidovich Fokina nearly gave up on his tennis career years before the best season of his career this year.
Davidovich Fokina has just won the Shanghai Masters, his first ever title at ATP 1000 level after beating the likes of Alexander Zverev, Rafael Jodar and Frances Tiafoe.
This is the third ATP title that the Spaniard has won in his career, with Davidovich Fokina also winning titles in Chengdu and Mallorca, having lost his five previous finals.
Davidovich Fokina was always set to achieve success after winning the Wimbledon boys’ title in 2017, but he has now admitted that this win nearly actually led him to quitting tennis entirely.
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina admits he couldn’t handle the pressure after winning junior Wimbledon
Davidovich Fokina was part of the Wimbledon junior tournament in 2017, winning the title in a tournament that also included the likes of Jack Draper and Sebastian Korda.
Becoming a junior Grand Slam champion was something Davidovich Fokina discussed on the latest episode of the Tennis Insider Club podcast with former world number four Caroline Garcia, as he admitted he struggled with the pressure he put on himself after this and at one point wanted to stop playing the sport entirely.
“When I won the Wimbledon juniors I couldn’t handle a racket, I was like, you know when you do a big achievement, like more eyes are looking to you and it was the first time I did something big in my tennis career, so it was not easy,” said Davidovich Fokina.
“The three months after I was playing futures and I was losing matches that I should win and there was a moment that I wanted to quit tennis because I couldn’t handle that pressure.”
Davidovich Fokina continued when asked where this pressure was coming from, “I think more myself that I didn’t have that confidence that I have right now or three years ago, four years ago.
“When you are 18, 19 and you are playing good and you have three months where you’re not playing matches and you are asking yourself, ‘I’m that good or was it just one week that I did good?’.
“With 17, 18, I don’t know Rafa [Nadal] winning the Grand Slams different story, but you don’t earn that kind of money that you can go and continue playing tennis, you need some sponsor to pay the expenses for travel for the team for everything.”
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina achieves career-high ranking after Shanghai victory
Davidovich Fokina will be glad that he decided to persist with playing tennis, as he is now at a career-high ranking of world number 13 after winning the Shanghai Masters.
What makes this achievement even more remarkable is that Davidovich Fokina actually was out of action for two months this year due to a lower back injury, which even forced him to miss the US Open.
Davidovich Fokina has returned to competition by winning two of the three tournaments he has played, including going unbeaten in China.
The 27-year-old will have to wait until next year to compete in China again, as Davidovich Fokina will now return to Europe for tournaments in Basel and Paris to conclude his impressive 2026 season.