Rafael Jodar Storms Past Medvedev as Shanghai Delivers the First All-Spanish Masters 1000 Final in Nine Years

SHANGHAI — Twenty-year-old Rafael Jodar played the biggest match of his life like someone who had been waiting for it all season. On Saturday evening at the Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena, the Spaniard outplayed former world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 6-4 to reach his first ATP Masters 1000 final — and keep alive one of the most startling breakthrough campaigns tennis has seen in years.

The numbers tell the story of a controlled demolition. Jodar needed one hour and 44 minutes, struck 22 winners, won 73 of the 134 points played and converted four of his seven break-point chances, while winning 66 percent of his first-serve points. Medvedev, the 2019 Shanghai champion, never looked comfortable: three aces against four double faults and only two of six break points converted.

A semifinal sealed with a forehand

The tone was set in a bruising 13-minute opening game. Medvedev saved four set points in the first set but eventually pushed a return long, and after a medical timeout before the second set, Jodar raced to a 2-0 lead, broke at 4-3 on a Medvedev double fault, and sealed it with a forehand winner down the line after a tame Medvedev smash sat up at the net.

Medvedev was gracious in defeat — and notably struck by the youngster's level. "It was not easy, I was a bit tired but that's part of the game," the 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. He's a great player."

Jodar has now won five matches in Shanghai, coming from a set down in each of his first four. He began the season ranked 168th in the world; now No. 13, he is one win away from cracking the ATP top 10 — and, per Opta, the first player born in 2006 to reach a Masters 1000 final.

The Spanish double: Davidovich Fokina dethrones Zverev

Earlier on Saturday, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina produced the other half of the Spanish story, upsetting top seed and soon-to-be year-end world No. 1 Alexander Zverev 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 in a two-hour, two-minute thriller.

The 25th seed landed 82 percent of first serves and struck 36 winners in only his second victory over Zverev in eight meetings, sealing the decider with an early break he never relinquished.

Zverev, who recently locked up the year-end No. 1 ranking, was blunt about his condition. "Today I was flat. Even in the first set, even though I won the set. I was not reacting so well," he said, adding that he had carried fatigue and a little injury into the tournament.

The German said his ankle had troubled him at times in Shanghai and that he will monitor his fitness before deciding on the Vienna ATP 500, which starts October 26. For Davidovich Fokina, the win extends a remarkable Chinese autumn: after lifting the Chengdu title last month, he is on a nine-match winning streak in the country and into his second Masters 1000 final after Monte Carlo 2022.

Contrition before celebration

Jodar's week has not been controversy-free. On Friday, after beating Ruud, he apologised for swearing at a ball kid during his fourth-round win over van de Zandschulp, admitting he had struggled to control his emotions after losing a point.

Chair umpire Jimmy Pinoargote, who speaks Spanish, gave the 20-year-old a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct and warned him not to speak to ball kids that way — a warning Jodar initially challenged before later conceding it was correct.

"I shouldn't have done that to the ball kid. It was my mistake. I respect a lot the ball kids and the umpires in all the matches and all the tournaments," Jodar said. "I was very frustrated because of how the match was going for me. I couldn't control my emotions at that point of the match."

He added that he hopes to apologise in person: "As I am learning how to do the forehand or how to do the backhand or how to do the serve, I'm also learning how to behave on the court... I'm not perfect; I'm a human, I make mistakes."

A final nine years in the making

Sunday's title match will be the first all-Spanish Masters 1000 final since 2017 — and the first ever played on a hard court. It is a snapshot of Spanish tennis in transition: Davidovich Fokina, 27, seeking his first Masters crown after years of near-misses, against Jodar, the 20-year-old who keeps rewriting what his generation is supposed to be capable of.

Both men are playing for their first Masters 1000 title: Jodar, the Marrakech champion, enters as the slight favourite; Davidovich Fokina arrives with nine straight wins in China and nothing to lose.

Whatever happens, Shanghai has already delivered a definitive statement: the next wave of Spanish tennis is not coming. It has arrived.