De Minaur Completes DC Open Journey With First Title Of Season

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Alex de Minaur
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Alex de Minaur (photo: Wick Photography/Mubadala Citi DC Open)

WASHINGTON, July 28, 2025 (by Michael Dickens)

It took Alex de Minaur saving three championship points to deny Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of winning his first career ATP Tour title at the Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington, D.C. Sunday evening. Then, after the affable Aussie won the ATP 500-series crown on his first championship point, with a perfectly-placed, solid ace out wide, de Minaur went over to console the proud but defeated Spaniard, who had buried his head in a towel – sitting alone on his bench – after coming so close to victory.

After three hours and three minutes of electrifying and entertaining tennis, on another sticky, summer night on Stadium Court at the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park, the World No. 13 de Minaur won his first title of the 2025 season – the 10th of his career and eighth on a hard court – with his 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (3) victory over the 12th-seeded Davidovich Fokina. A journey that began on the same Stadium Court, when the 26-year-old de Minaur was just 19 in 2018 and losing in the DC Open final in straight sets to Alexander Zverev, had come full circle for him. 

“I just stayed in the moment, competed to the last point, and thanks to that, I got my tenth title,” de Minaur said during his champion’s news conference. “Extremely happy with myself.”

In garnering his 35th victory of the 2025 season – which ties de Minaur for second on the ATP Tour with Zverev – he became the fifth Australian champion in event history. He joins Tony Roche (1971), Ken Rosewall (1972), Lleyton Hewitt (2004), and Nick Kyrgios (2019, 2022). It was also de Minaur’s 22nd hard-court win this season, which leads the ATP Tour.

Looking back on the how the championship match turned in de Minaur’s favor, first he broke Davidovich Fokina to get back on serve at 4-5, after earlier trailing 2-5. Then, as de Minaur was serving to level the set and prolong the match, he fended off three championship points during a wild and crazy, 14-and-a-half minute service hold, that stretched across 18 points and included six deuces.

Suddenly, the championship final had become a game of inches and willpower, after a desperate lob by de Minaur clipped the sideline and gave him new hope. Ultimately, the 10th game turned things around and went in favor of de Minaur. Soon, he – and not Davidovich Fokina – would win it all in a deciding tie-breaker.

“It’s something about this court,” de Minaur recalled, during a brief sideline interview with ATP Media for TV before the trophy ceremony. “I did it in 2018 against Rublev and honestly, I just kind of knew I could do it.” De Minaur was making reference to four match points he saved against Andrey Rublev during a three-set semifinal win before losing the final to Zverev the next day.

“I just backed myself and I told myself to commit no matter what and if I lost this match it was going to be on my terms. Today it went my way. I’ve had a couple of brutal ones not go my way, so I’m glad this one went my way.”

By the end of the final, de Minaur had accumulated 24 winners – including nine aces – to offset 45 unforced errors, compared to 28 winners and 57 unforced errors for Davidovich Fokina. He converted four of nine break-point chances and save five of eight break points from Davidovich Fokina. De Minaur outpointed his opponent 116-105. It was scrappy tennis at its best.

“Well, another day, another unlucky day, but I’m happy how I played, how I did my things, and, well, I will continue to work harder, to have the trophy,” Davidovich Fokina said after the loss.

Come Monday, with the National Bank Open looming in Toronto for both competitors, de Minaur will climb to No. 8 in the PIF ATP Rankings, returning to the Top 10 after a five-week absence. As for Davidovich Fokina, he remains the highest ranked player on the ATP Tour without a title – after losing earlier finals this season in Delray Beach and Acapulco. As a consolation, he will still move up to World No. 19, an improvement of seven spots, after achieving consecutive Top-10 victories over Americans Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton.

“I’m happy that I’m Top 20,” Davidovich Fokina said, “but the goal today was to lift the trophy.”

During his remarks after accepting the champion’s trophy, de Minaur turned to Davidovich Fokina and said: “You’re way too good to not have one of these [trophies]. It’s coming for sure. You deserved it today. I just got lucky. You are a hell of a competitor, a hell of a player. No one on the Tour wants to play you. This is not the end, this is only going up for you.”

Bolelli and Vavassori first Italian team to win DC Open doubles title

Top seeds Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori, the first Italian doubles finalists in tournament history, won their fourth ATP Tour title of the season to go along with trophies lifted in Adelaide, Rotterdam and Hamburg. They defeated No. 3 seeds Hugo Nys of Monaco and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France, 6-3, 6-4, in one hour and 16 minutes for their 29th victory of the season and seventh career ATP Tour doubles title.

Play, which began on Stadium Court, was suspended for one hour and 50 minutes due to lightening in the area. It came after 46 minutes of play with the Italians leading 6-3, 2-0. When play resumed, the final was moved next door to John Harris Court in order to start the women’s singles final as close to its original 2:30 p.m. scheduled time as possible.

Bolelli and Vavassori became the second team, after Great Britain’s Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool, to win four or more tour-level titles in 2025 and the DC Open title was their fifth at ATP 500-series level.

The 39-year-old Bolelli, ranked 12th and Vavassori, 30, who is ranked 14th, have been together as a team since 2021 and compiled a lifetime record of 81-40 – including 29-12 this season. They are No. 5 in the PIF Doubles Team Rankings.

“Thanks to my partner,” Bolelli said, quoted by the ATP Tour website. “He’s an amazing player, we’re friends, and he’s adding years to my career. … We’ve really enjoyed this week in Washington, we’ve played four matches with some great support. We try to do our best every week.”

Added Vavassori: “Thanks to Simone. We’ve been together for two and a half years. It’s great to have a friend to travel with, prepare the work and play the matches. It’s amazing for me and we will keep going in Toronto next week.”

Nys and Roger-Vasselin, who began their partnership in 2022, reunited in Adelaide this year and have gone 26-14 this season and are now 27-15 lifetime.

Around the DC Open

During a weekend news conference, Mark Ein, chairman of the Mubadala Citi DC Open since 2019, said the tournament takes huge pride in the diversity of the tennis crowd, which has been coming to Rock Creek Park since 1969 to watch professional tennis. 

“When you walk around, the biggest compliment I get, and I get it with some regularity, said in different ways, it happened when we owned the [Washington] Kastles [of World TeamTennis] and it’s happened here, people look around and say this is the single-best melting pot of our community that I experience,” Ein said.

“It’s not just race. It’s age, gender, income, geography, it’s every bit of diversity. It literally brings everybody together. Again, as the caretaker/owner of this thing, nothing is more rewarding than having the opportunity to bring people together from every walk of life into something they can all be excited about.

“I definitely, when I walk around, I feel like that’s the case and I’m really proud of that. You know, some of that is the nature of our community, which is very diverse. Some of it is the nature of the sport, the athletes.

“I think we really try hard that there is something for everyone here, you know. There’s something for everyone. It’s not all about appealing to any one set of people. It’s something for everyone. 

“I love the fact that people from every part of our community come and attend but also have a lot of passion for the event.”

Sunday’s DC Open results

By the numbers

Alex De Minaur leads the ATP Tour in hard-court wins this year with 22. By winning the DC Open title match, de Minaur leads his head to head series with Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 3-2. De Minaur has won all three hard-court meetings, including the ATP Masters 1000 Toronto semifinal in 2023 to reach the biggest final of career. De Minaur is the highest-ranked Washington men’s champion since No. 3 Alexander Zverev defeated him in the 2018 DC Open final.

“Quotable …”

“I’m very, very grateful to be in another final, and yeah, at the end it’s not easy to play and win a lot of matches at the end. Every player is improving a lot, and you see on tour that everyone can beat anyone. I think I’m improving as well a lot of things on court and off court. I’m very happy with my performance this year, and for sure it’s one of the best years of my career.”

– Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain, during his post-match news conference Saturday night after defeating No. 4 seed Ben Shelton of the United States, on if he believes he’s playing the best tennis of his career.

 

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