{"id":97086,"date":"2025-07-27T16:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T16:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/97086\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T16:01:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T16:01:08","slug":"alejandro-davidovich-fokina-says-whether-he-was-bothered-by-the-washington-open-crowd-cheering-for-ben-shelton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/97086\/","title":{"rendered":"Alejandro Davidovich Fokina says whether he was bothered by the Washington Open crowd cheering for Ben Shelton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina\u2019s 2025 has been nothing short of revolutionary, but has just lacked the title to solidify it as one of his best on tour.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, he will get the perfect chance to finally accomplish that feat, as he is due to contest the Washington Open<\/a> final against Alex de Minaur later tonight.<\/p>\n

It stands as the culmination of many months of high-profile victories for the Spaniard, with many more coming this week in DC.<\/p>\n

He has beaten both Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton<\/a> to reach this stage, and in recent months has claimed scalps over stars like Jack Draper, Andrey Rublev and Jakub Mensik, to name but a few.<\/p>\n

Davidovich Fokina must now complete one more to add some silverware to this sparkling year.<\/p>\n

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina rates the Washington Open crowd<\/strong><\/p>\n

What\u2019s particularly interesting about his Washington Open run is the players he has beaten this week alone to reach the final.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old has brushed aside Learner Tien, Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton to reach this stage, dominating the Americans on their home soil.<\/p>\n

As such, the crowds have intensified with each new round, willing their compatriots to success against this upset specialist.<\/p>\n

Clearly, it is not working.<\/p>\n

Asked about this constant battle with the DC crowd, particularly against Shelton in the semi-final, Davidovich Fokina was asked whether he was ever bothered by it.<\/p>\n

His reply was simple: \u201cMaybe before I was hearing that they were cheering for me, maybe a couple of years ago, but now, I want that. For example, I love to play in these stadiums against a local guy, and that they cheering for him, because that gives me a lot of energy, like more energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo win here like double, like motivation for me to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben Shelton just cannot beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina at the moment<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although Shelton was the heavy favourite heading into yesterday\u2019s semi-final, their recent head-to-head record certainly suggested otherwise.<\/p>\n

After all, the American had already played Davidovich Fokina twice this year, losing on both occasions. This marked the hat trick.<\/p>\n

For whatever reason, the Spanish star\u2019s game style affects the big-serving youngster, as he explained in his post-match press conference.<\/p>\n

Fokina explained why he always beats Shelton<\/a> by suggesting: \u201cAt the end, I knew that I know my weakness, I know my power, and I know that I\u2019m a very good returner. Then it\u2019s a tricky match, because at the end I can read a little bit how he serves. And at the end, I can do that he thinks more than maybe other players.\u201d<\/p>\n

His steady progression throughout 2024 deserves huge praise, and a title would be a rather fitting reward for his hard work.<\/p>\n

Alas, De Minaur will not make things easy for him in the final, with his a completely contrasting game style to Shelton or Fritz.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alejandro Davidovich Fokina\u2019s 2025 has been nothing short of revolutionary, but has just lacked the title to solidify…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":97087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[48],"tags":[60099,21485,62,1464,67,132,68,52250],"class_list":["post-97086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-alejandro-davidovich-fokina","tag-ben-shelton","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-washington-open"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114926038798250751","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}