No Luck for Shelton in DC – Davidovich Fokina and De Minaur Set Final

For the second straight year Ben Shelton powered into the semifinals at the Citi Open in DC. For the second consecutive year, the bomb-serving southpaw couldn’t take the next step. 

Shelton was debunked by one of the hottest players on tour in 2025, Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, in Saturday’s second semifinal. The 12th seed notched a 6-2, 7-5 victory to power into his third final of the season. 

26-year-old Davidovich Fokina will bid for his long awaited maiden ATP title against Australia’s Alex De Minaur, who battled past Corentin Moutet in the first men’s semifinal of the day, 6-4, 6-3. 

The Aussie has split his four previous meetings with Davidovich Fokina. 

Shelton was off kilter from the start and never really dominated from the service stripe like he is capable of. He made just 55 percent of first serves and was broken four times in total, but he did manage to make a heated contest of things in the second set when he scored his only break of the night to level back with Davidovich Fokina at 4-4 in the second set. 

But the Spaniard produced inspired tennis three games later, breaking with a forehand pass for 6-5, before he served out the contest in an efficient one hour and nineteen minutes. 

For his efforts, Davidovich Fokina will make his ATP Top 20 debut on Monday, but he’d much rather do it with a title – he’s lost all three of his previous ATP finals. 

The Spaniard has now won five matches against Top-10 players this year.

De Minaur, seeded No.7, is into his 19th ATP final and he will bid for his tenth ATP title. 

He broke open a close match against Moutet by winning the first 14 points of the second set. Though the Frenchman rallied to make it a contest, he could never draw closer than a break down from there.