ATP Tour

Diving Davidovich Fokina sets Fritz SF in Eastbourne

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina is settling into the grass-court season rather nicely at this week’s Lexus Eastbourne Open.

The sixth seed weathered #NextGenATP Jakub Mensik 6-4, 7-5 on a blustery Thursday to seal his spot in the semi-finals at the ATP 250 event. Davidovich Fokina, who is competing in his first grass-court event of the year, countered the wind in style and delivered some trademark shotmaking brilliance, which included various diving volleys.

“Today was not an easy day [with] so much wind, we were trying our best, but in the end I’m happy with how I was playing,” said Davidovich Fokina. “I need to recover my body, there was a lot of diving and sliding on the court today… My muscles are a little bit tired after this match.”

Watch Davidovich Fokina's Diving Brilliance in Eastbourne:

Davidovich Fokina enjoyed a standout start to the season, during which he made consecutive finals in Delray Beach and Acapulco before reaching the semi-finals at the ATP Masters 1000 in Madrid. But the Spaniard struggled to maintain consistency at the back end of the clay swing, falling in the second round in Hamburg and at Roland Garros.

However, since getting married two weeks ago, Davidovich Fokina appears to be gathering momentum. He withdrew from his first-round clash with Carlos Alcaraz at Queen’s Club last week and is now into his ninth tour-level semi-final, and first on grass.

Davidovich Fokina, who is the first Spanish semi-finalist in Eastbourne since Feliciano Lopez won the title in 2014, will face top seed and defending titlist Taylor Fritz, who held firm to defeat contryman Marcos Giron 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 and keep alive his hopes of a fourth Eastbourne title.

Just hours after triumphing in three sets in his delayed opener with #NextGenATP Brazilian Joao Fonseca, Fritz returned to court and prevailed in another physical test against Giron. In the deciding set, the top seed and defending champion dropped just one of 23 points behind his first delivery, according to Infosys ATP Stats.

“I’ve been here so many years… I love this tournament and I love the way it feels to play here,” said record three-time champion Fritz. “I’ve been very lucky all those years I won the tournament to not play in very windy conditions… It’s tough for me when I don’t get to play the tennis I love to play and I have to scrap and play crazy tennis.”

Despite losing his way in the second set, in which he dropped serve twice, Fritz remained resolute and displayed flashes of his best grass-court tennis in the decider. In the seventh game, he sent the crowd into a frenzy by hitting a ‘tweener in response to a lob before chasing down the drop shot for a winner.

With his two-hour, 23-minute victory, Fritz improved to 5-2 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Giron and will compete in a fourth semi-final in Eastbourne. The 27-year-old has won the title on each occasion he has reached the last four at the ATP 250 event.

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Ugo Humbert and Jenson Brooksby put an end to British hopes in Eastbourne by defeating Billy Harris and Daniel Evans, respectively, and setting a semi-final meeting.

The fourth-seeded Humbert delivered a clinical display to defeat Harris 7-6(4), 6-1 and move into his 20th ATP Tour semi-final, while Brooksby became the fourth lucky loser to reach the last four in tournament history.

Earlier in the day, Fritz overcame a late scare from #NextGenATP Brazilian Fonseca to continue his love affair with the grass-court ATP 250 event.

Their second-round clash had been suspended due to darkness on Wednesday evening after they split sets, and Fritz quickly regained his rhythm once play resumed. The three-time champion earned an early break and attempted to serve out the match at 5-3 in the final set before Fonseca fought back.

3x Champ survives 💪@Taylor_Fritz97 withstands a serious test from Fonseca, 6-3 6-7(5) 7-5 to begin his hunt for back-to-back titles at the #LexusEastbouneOpen ❗️@the_LTA pic.twitter.com/4J0NIYDpae

— ATP Tour (@atptour) June 26, 2025

However, Fritz adjusted well to the windy conditions and a determined Fonseca to prevail 6-3, 6-7(5), 7-5 after two hours, two minutes. The top-seeded American, who owns the record for most titles won in Eastbourne (2019, ‘22, ‘24), will have to lace up and return to court later on Thursday to face countryman Giron in the quarter-finals.

“I’m really happy. I was really happy with the level of tennis last night, it’s a shame we couldn’t finish the match then,” said Fritz. “Coming out today, it was tough to really judge my grass-court play, there was a lot of scrapping around.”

Fritz was looking assured on serve throughout the final set, during which he won all 11 points behind his first delivery, according to Infosys ATP Stats, prior to the ninth game. Despite stumbling at the final hurdle, however, Fritz was able to draw on his grass-court pedigree, which has helped him to three triumphs in Eastbourne and a first title of the season two weeks ago in Stuttgart.

“I think almost half of my career titles are on grass, which says a lot for how short the grass-court season is,” said Fritz, the nine-time tour-level champion. “I feel really confident on it, I feel like I can be serving well, taking care of service games when it’s not really windy.”

Fonseca, who is at a career-high No. 57 in the PIF ATP Rankings, earned his maiden tour-level grass-court win over Zizou Bergs in the first round. The 18-year-old will now head to Wimbledon for his debut at the grass-court major.