Alejandro Davidovich Fokina defeats Valentin Vacherot as Adelaide title race gathers pace | ATP Tour
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Adelaide title race gathers pace as Davidovich Fokina defeats Vacherot
The top seeds will next face Humbert; Paul and Machak trigger a small forward conflict
January 15, 2026
Sarah Reid/Getty Images
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina competes in the ATP Tour for the first time as the top seed.
Jerome Coombe
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina continued his bid for his first ATP Tour title at the Adelaide International on Thursday night, reaching the semi-finals.
The 26-year-old Spaniard hit a series of stunning angles and winners to defeat Shanghai defending champion Valentin Vaccello 7-6(4), 6-2. Davidovich Fokina has reached five ATP Tour finals, including two championship points in 2025, and will establish himself in Adelaide, where he will compete as top seed for the first time in his career.
“I know his serve is very good,” Davidovich Fokina said of Vacherot, who hit 15 aces, according to Infosys ATP statistics. “I tried my best to catch his serve… It was like playing against him [John] Isner. The key is to focus, I [have] Every game improves my game. “
Come rolling! 💪@alexdavidovich1 Defeated Vaccello in straight sets to advance to the Adelaide semi-finals!@adelaidetennis | #adelaidetennis pic.twitter.com/sXOzB1Dn7g
— ATP Tour (@atptour) January 15, 2026
Davidovich Fokina reached the semifinals for the 12th time and will face fourth seed Ugo Humbert, who hit 32 winners in just 57 minutes to defeat qualifier Alexander Shevchenko 6-0, 6-3.
Earlier, second seed Tommy Paul continued his impressive form in Adelaide, defeating Australian Alexander Vukic 6-3, 6-2 to reach the semi-finals of the ATP 250 event for the third time. Paul, the former PIF ATP No. 8 who missed the final three months of the 2025 season due to a long-term foot injury, returned in Brisbane last week but lost in the first round to big-server Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.
“I’m happy to be back here. It’s been a long year for me and I’m really happy to be back in Australia playing some great tennis,” said Paul, who also reached the semifinals of the Australian Open in 2023. “They’ve done a good job of keeping the same pace on most pitches in all the games in Australia and they seemed to match my game.”
Paul will next face Tomas Machak, who defeated Jaume Munar 6-4, 6-4 to advance to the semifinals for the first time since winning his only ATP Tour title in Acapulco last February. The eighth-seeded Czech holds a 2-1 Lexus ATP head-to-head lead against Paul, who won their most recent meeting in Rome last year.
Machak arrives in Adelaide having not won a tour-level match since his debut in Shanghai last October, but has yet to drop a set in three dominant wins this week.
