Delray Beach Open: Alejandro Davidovich Fokina took "5 or 6" pills in order to beat Taylor Fritz

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina has qualified for the semifinals of the ATP 250 Delray Beach Open 2025 being played in Florida. The Spaniard defeated Taylor Fritz, the tournament's number 1 seed, in two tie breaks (7-6/7-6). Of course, there was controversy.

At 5-6 and serving in favor of the American in the second set, at a key moment, the player from Malaga asked for a medical timeout. It is not at all elegant to do that, to ask for a medical timeout when your opponent is going to serve, and even less so when he is going to serve to win a set. This is how the specialist José Morgado explained it:

"Stopping a match to call a medical timeout before your opponent's service game should not be allowed, especially when your opponent is serving to stay in the match."

Davidovich, who is not the typical tennis player who takes advantage of doctors to try to destabilize his opponents during matches, apologized to Fritz after the duel, assuring that he would not have been able to continue playing if he had not been medicated:

"I apologized to Taylor because I was feeling my back a lot at the end of the second set. I didn't do it on purpose. I had to take five or six pills to be able to play."

Foki's opponent in the semis will be the Italian Matteo Arnaldi, fourth seed, who is in great form (he defeated Brandon Nakashima in the quarterfinals). The other semifinal will be contested by American Alex Michelsen and Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic.