SHANGHAI (AP) — Alejandro Davidovich Fokina rallied from a set and a break down to beat Rafael Jodar 1-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 and win the Shanghai Masters on Sunday, securing his third title of the year and biggest yet of his career.
The 25th-seeded Spaniard had lost the first five finals of his career, including the Monte Carlo Masters in 2022.
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Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina kisses the championship trophy after winning the men's singles final against Spain's Rafael Jodar at the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament in Shanghai, China, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina poses with the championship trophy after winning the men's singles final against Spain's Rafael Jodar at the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament in Shanghai, China, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Spain's Rafael Jodar reacts during play against Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the men's singles final at the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament in Shanghai, China, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina returns the ball to Spain's Rafael Jodar during the men's singles final at the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament in Shanghai, China, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Spain's Rafael Jodar checks his foot during the men's singles final against Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina at the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament in Shanghai, China, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina celebrates after winning the men's singles final against Spain's Rafael Jodar at the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament in Shanghai, China, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina celebrates after winning the men's singles final against Spain's Rafael Jodar at the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament in Shanghai, China, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
His other titles this year came on grass in Mallorca in June and at the Chengdu Open in China last month. Both were ATP 250 tournaments.
He clutched the Shanghai trophy tightly and then kissed it.
“I don’t have any words right now,” Davidovich Fokina said. “I have a blank mind. I don’t know what to say and I don’t know how I feel. Just a huge relief.”
Davidovich Fokina was close to going out of the tournament, saving a match point in the third round against three-time U.S. Open semifinalist Frances Tiafoe. He then rallied from a set down against future No. 1 Alexander Zverev in the semifinals.
The 20-year-old Spaniard Rafael Jodar, seeded No. 12, was also appearing in his first Masters 1000 final and looked set for a second career title following a dominant first set.
But like against Zverev, Davidovich Fokina fought back again.
He used his court speed to break back to 3-3 in the second set, retrieving a drop shot by pushing a backhand pass down the line, despite being off balance. He fell on his back and spread his arms out to celebrate winning that point.
Jodar called for a trainer at 4-3 in the third set and had a massage on his right thigh.
In the next game, he grimaced in pain and clutched his left foot after slightly twisting it when running to the net. He then had a massage on his left thigh at the changeover.
“In the third set, maybe I had a bit more fitness physically,” the 27-year-old Davidovich Fokina said. "He's an amazing player and it was very tough to play against him.”
He won on his second match point when Jodar, who beat former Shanghai champion Daniil Medvedev in the semifinal, could not return his serve.
See AP’s full tennis coverage here
Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina kisses the championship trophy after winning the men's singles final against Spain's Rafael Jodar at the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament in Shanghai, China, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina poses with the championship trophy after winning the men's singles final against Spain's Rafael Jodar at the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament in Shanghai, China, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Spain's Rafael Jodar reacts during play against Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the men's singles final at the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament in Shanghai, China, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina returns the ball to Spain's Rafael Jodar during the men's singles final at the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament in Shanghai, China, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Spain's Rafael Jodar checks his foot during the men's singles final against Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina at the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament in Shanghai, China, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina celebrates after winning the men's singles final against Spain's Rafael Jodar at the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament in Shanghai, China, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina celebrates after winning the men's singles final against Spain's Rafael Jodar at the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament in Shanghai, China, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday expressed the public's “anger” and “shame” over nationwide protests against rising living costs and poor conditions in schools that have resulted in at least 1,800 arrests.
Speaking in an address to the nation, Macron said: “Those who looted will have to pay back for the damage, and those who sought to bring down the Republic will be held accountable.”
He pointed to “unrestrained violence” by “insurrectionist elements from radical far-left groups, joined by numerous criminals.”
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back for updates. AP’s earlier story follows below.
French President Emmanuel Macron was set to address the nation Sunday after violent groups clashed with police and looted shops during nationwide protests against rising living costs and poor conditions in schools, with at least 1,800 people arrested across France.
Macron held an emergency meeting with senior government officials, a day after masked groups set fires and attacked public buildings, including city halls, in several cities.
In the central town of Limoges, flames engulfed the 19th-century City Hall, causing its roof to collapse and nearly destroying the building.
Hundreds of protesters gathered again Sunday at the Place de la République in Paris amid a heavy police presence. Officers used tear gas as tensions flared sporadically in the neighborhood, with small groups of people trying to set bicycles and trash bins on fire.
“The right to protest is a fundamental right. Deliberately and collectively sowing disorder through violence is not,” Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez wrote on X, citing the looting of hundreds of businesses in cities including Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Bordeaux.
About 550,000 people took part in protests across France, according to authorities, while organizers put the figure at about 800,000. Demonstrators answered calls from a labor union, student organizations and activists hoping to revive the “yellow vest” movement, which emerged in 2018 to protest social injustice.
Mass protests in France are often marred by violence on the fringes of otherwise peaceful marches, leading to clashes with police. The arrest tally reported Sunday approached the nearly 2,000 recorded nationwide during a single day of yellow vest protests in December 2018.
One person died of a heart attack, Paris police said in a statement, without providing details. The Paris prosecutor’s office said it was investigating.
Dislodged cobblestones, shattered storefronts and broken glass littered the area around Paris’ Place de la République on Sunday. Looting and damage were also reported in other tourist and shopping districts.
Paris police said 855 people were arrested in the capital region. The city's prosecutor’s office said 557 remained in police custody.
“I am actually stunned by the level of destruction and violence that was expressed,” said government employee Marie Peyreigne, 57, wondering what had led to the mayhem.
Parisians inspecting the damage photographed the partially dismantled base of the square’s central monument, a statue of Marianne, a symbol of France.
Jean Foissy, 74, said he had wanted to join the protest but encountered “a wall of riot police and fires everywhere” and returned home.
“I was very scared,” he said. “I’ve been a Parisian since I was born, so when I got here, it almost made me want to cry because I find it so bad, it hurts me.”
Margaux Eude, 26, said she supported the protest movement but “didn’t think it would escalate like this.”
“It’s the troublemakers who came, and it breaks my heart because it delegitimizes the movement,” she said.
Political leaders across the spectrum sought to parlay the fallout of Saturday’s riots into political capital, looking ahead to next spring’s presidential election.
Far-right leader and presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen criticized Macron's centrist government as “exhausted, disoriented and seemingly incapable of doing anything other than commenting on its own powerlessness,” in a video posted Sunday on social media.
Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, for his part, accused Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu of “playing with fire,” alleging that “by banking on degradation, you have only succeeded in uniting all youths and workers’ unions.”
Mélenchon, who joined the Paris march Saturday, insisted that “my message is clear: those who share our fight have no business in looting or destruction.”
U.S. President Donald Trump posted “France is burning!” on his Truth Social platform, apparently linking the unrest to “the immigration of people from an entirely different world.”
“Close your Borders and take control, before it is too late!” he wrote.
French authorities and police have not linked immigrants to the rioting and have repeatedly attributed some of the violence to “radical far-left groups” and other people who joined to loot.
“The scale of the damage is considerable and unprecedented,” Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire wrote in an open letter. “Paris is a city of freedoms, debate and demonstrations. It must remain so. But it must also be a city where everyone can work and run a business safely.”
Police said groups of hundreds of people formed unauthorized marches across central Paris on Saturday. “By late afternoon, a new phase began with the arrival of large numbers of people whose sole aim was to steal and loot, taking advantage of the unrest,” police said.
The mayors of Paris, Marseille and Lyon, the three largest cities, requested a meeting with the prime minister in the coming days “given the extent of the damage and the seriousness of the situation.”
In the southern port city of Marseille, some protesters briefly forced their way into the lobby of City Hall and a group of people wearing hoods and masks damaged a police station. In Lyon, a fire broke out inside a tourist office.
In Limoges, a group of “radical troublemakers” broke into City Hall while there were elected officials, employees, security personnel and members of the public inside, Maurice Barate, prefect of the Haute-Vienne region, said. “Despite the presence of so many people, they deliberately set the building on fire. It is an extremely serious and unspeakable act.”
In eastern France, the Mulhouse prosecutor’s office said an investigation has been opened after a 17-year-old girl was injured during the protests and lost an eye. On Saturday, another investigation was opened after a young protester lost a hand in Saint-Etienne.
The injuries come as police have drawn sharp scrutiny over their use of grenades and other riot-control weapons during recent demonstrations.
A woman walks her dog past a looted store the day after a demonstration against rising living costs, joining students' grievances, in Paris, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
People look at charred cars the day after a demonstration against rising living costs and in solidarity with students' grievances, in Paris, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
People clean up debris in a street next to burned bicycles the day after a demonstration against rising living costs and in solidarity with students' grievances, in Paris, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
People look at charred cars the day after a demonstration against rising living costs, joining students' grievances, in Paris, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
A woman takes a snapshot of a looted store the day after a demonstration against rising living costs, joining students' grievances, in Paris, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
A protester holds a board with a photo of French president Emmanuel Macron in front of a burning tourism office during a demonstration against rising living costs and in solidarity with students' grievances in Lyon, France, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)
A looted store the day after a demonstration against rising living costs, joining students' grievances, in Paris, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
People look at charred cars the day after a demonstration against rising living costs, joining students' grievances, in Paris, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
People look at a charred car on Place de la Republique the day after a demonstration against rising living costs, joining students' grievances, in Paris, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
