WATCH: Rafael Nadal congratulates Alejandro Davidovich Fokina for his runner-up finish in Monte-Carlo


WATCH: Rafael Nadal congratulates Alejandro Davidovich Fokina for his runner-up finish in Monte-Carlo

Rafael Nadal and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina

22-year old Alejandro Davidovich Fokina had a fantastic time in Monaco last week as he reached his first-ever ATP final but was unfortunate to miss out on the title. Up against the defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas in the finals of the 2022 Monte-Carlo Masters, Fokina went down in straight-sets but not without a fight.

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The run to the finals saw Fokina rise 19 places in the rankings and break into the Top-30 sitting on the 27th position in the rankings after the rankings were updated post the finals in Monte-Carlo. While Fokina narrowly missed out on the title what could have been his first-ever, it certainly was a great week for him and it capped off brilliantly after the finals.

Having grown up watching his compatriot and 11-time Monte-Carlo champion Rafael Nadal, Fokina was congratulated by the 21-time Grand Slam winner through an Instagram post where Nadal send out messages for both Stefanos and Fokina through the post. While he wrote the message for Fokina in Spanish which translates to, “Congratulations to @aledavidovichofficial for the final in #MonteCarlo great week!!!!”, he wrote the message in English for Stef.

“This is a tournament I have always liked. I have seen the great moments of Rafael Nadal and his victories of him, and I thought that I wish one day I could be the one who lives that,” Fokina had said earlier in the tournament and getting a message from his idol himself would certainly have been a great moment for him.

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Looking back at Alejandro Davidovich Fokina’s week in Monte-Carlo

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina

Coming into the tournament with a 4-6 record on outdoor hardcourts, 0-1 record on claycourts and an overall season record of 4-9 with defeats in both of his indoor hardcourt matches, hardly anyone thought that Fokina could indeed be in the finals. After defeating Marcos Giron in straight-sets in the opener, Fokina met World No. 1 Novak Djokovic and the Serbian was the outright favourite for the match despite being without match practice.

Fokina however staged one of the upsets of the season and picked up his second Top-10 win and his first against a World No. 1. He then defeated David Goffin in straight-sets before taking down Indian Wells champion Taylor Fritz in the quarter-finals and Grigor Dimitrov in the semi-finals in 3-sets to enter the finals. With a Masters runner-up finish already in the start of the Golden Swing, Fokina will certainly have the attention on him in the next 6-8 weeks.

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