SHANGHAI: Rising star Rafael Jodar ousted Daniil Medvedev in straight sets on Saturday to reach the Shanghai Masters final, where he will play Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in an all-Spanish affair.
The 26th-ranked Davidovich Fokina fought back to stun wilting top seed Alexander Zverev 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.
In the second semi-final the 20-year-old Jodar beat Medvedev, a decade his senior, 6-3, 6-4 to deny the Russian former world number one a chance to return to the championship match he won in 2019.
Jodar, ranked 13th, started the season ranked 168th. It is his first time in a final at the prestigious 1000 level.
"It was very fun," Jodar told the crowd afterwards, though he credited Medvedev for making the win "tough."
"All the games were very close," Jodar added.
"Super happy with how I handled the important moments," he said, adding that he showed his "best level."
The two players set the tone for a thriller as they pushed the first game to 13 minutes, with Jodar valiantly holding serve.
They traded breaks and battled through gruelling rallies on a humid evening that saw Medvedev, 30, leaning on his racquet and hunched over.
"It was not easy, I was a bit tired but that's part of the game," the sixth-ranked Russian said. "I think he was tired as well but he managed to do it better than me."
"He was better on the return than I was," Medvedev added, calling Jodar a "great player."
"He's top 10. It's not like he's 60 in the world and we're starting to talk about it," Medvedev said.
"We never know who wins 25 Grand Slams, six, one, two. Let's see."
Medvedev, the 2021 US Open champion, saved four set points but Jodar regrouped to win the first set when the Russian returned long.
Jodar needed a medical timeout before the second set but returned to the court technically excellent, racing to a 2-0 lead.
He broke to go up 4-3 when Medvedev double-faulted, and the Russian tumbled to the ground as he tried to save a match point.
Medvedev clung on for one more game but Jodar dropped no more points and sent down a decisive forehand to clinch victory.
The 27-year-old Davidovich Fokina combined grit, lightning-fast returns and graceful drop shots to stun the German Zverev, who will end the year world number one.
"I was a little bit nervous," Davidovich Fokina said of his shaky start.
"But I keep going, I keep fighting, every ball," he said.
The Spaniard extended his winning streak in China to nine matches, after claiming an ATP 250 title in Chengdu.
Zverev, the French and US Open champion, said fatigue had caught up with him.
"I think a break is quite necessary now," the 29-year-old told reporters, saying he would monitor his fitness ahead of a tournament in Vienna that begins October 24.
"I carried a little bit of injury, I carried fatigue into the tournament, and I'm okay to lose to a player like this today," said Zverev, who had felt his ankle at times in Shanghai. - AFP
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