07/26/25 11:38:00
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07/26 23:36 CDT Davidovich Fokina beats Shelton to reach the DC Open final vs.
de Minaur. Fernandez faces Kalinskaya
Davidovich Fokina beats Shelton to reach the DC Open final vs. de Minaur.
Fernandez faces Kalinskaya
WASHINGTON (AP) --- Alejandro Davidovich Fokina broke big-serving Ben Shelton a
half-dozen times and eliminated the No. 4 seed by a 6-2, 7-5 score in the D.C.
Open semifinals Saturday to follow up his upset of No. 1 seed Taylor Fritz a
night earlier.
The 12th-seeded Davidovich Fokina, a 26-year-old from Spain, will face No. 7
seed Alex de Minaur on Sunday for the title at the hard-court tournament. De
Minaur advanced to his second Washington final by beating Corentin Moutet 6-4,
6-3.
Davidovich Fokina will be seeking his first ATP trophy in his fourth career
final. No matter the outcome, he has guaranteed himself a debut in the top 20
of the rankings after arriving in D.C. at No. 26.
The semifinal win was de Minaur's 20th victory on a hard court in 2025, the
most on the ATP tour. The Australian, who is 13th in the rankings, moved into
his 19th career final; he's 9-9 so far. One of the runner-up finishes came
against Alexander Zverev at Washington in 2018.
In the women's bracket, Leylah Fernandez will be trying to win her first WTA
title of the season, and Anna Kalinskaya will seek the first of her career when
they meet each other Sunday.
Fernandez, the runner-up at the 2021 U.S. Open, hit 12 aces and picked up her
second victory of the week against a top-20 opponent by beating 2022 Wimbledon
champion Elena Rybakina 6-7 (2), 7-6 (3), 7-6 (3) across 3 hours, 16 minutes in
the semifinals.
Kalinskaya needed less than half as much time to eliminate Emma Raducanu 6-4,
6-3 with the help of 14 backhand winners in the other women's semifinal. It was
Raducanu who defeated Fernandez for the championship at Flushing Meadows four
years ago.
Both women's finalists are unseeded. Canada's Fernandez, who is 22 years old,
is ranked 36th; Russia's Kalinskaya, 26, is ranked 48th.
Kalinskaya moved into her third tour-level final. She went 0-2 in title matches
last season.
Fernandez, who got past top-seeded Jessica Pegula earlier in the week, owns
three titles. Sunday's matchup will be her seventh career final.
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
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