A funny viral clip from the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament has brought Alejandro Davidovich Fokina to the attention of a whole new group of fans.
The Spanish pro, sitting inside the ATP world top 30, is having a great run through Asia after coming back from an injury lay-off.
During his second-round victory over the USA’s Jenson Brooksby in China on Friday, people in the arena and watching on live TV saw more than just tennis. It led to some playful posts on social media.
It wasn’t quite the same kind of attention as Arsenal soccer player Piero Hincapie got when his shorts fell off during a Premier League match in May, but tennis fans on X and Reddit were quick to share memes and jokes.
In the second set at the Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena, a physiotherapist seemed to rub a cream or gel into Fokina’s lower back, pulling down his shorts to get the treatment on.
The player had dealt with a serious back injury after Wimbledon, which kept him out of play from July until September.
Social media lit up about it. The “No Context Gay” account on X joked about the physio doing the work. The @ATPHotness account also helped the clip spread.
Fokina beat Brooksby 6-1 6-3, which set up a third-round matchup against Frances Tiafoe.
But the story didn’t end there. Whatever cream got put on Fokina’s back before that match against Tiafoe on Sunday seems to have caused a bad allergic reaction.
Fokina was trailing 3-2 in the first set when he called for a medical time-out. Lifting his shirt, everyone could see the skin on his lower back was bright red. All he got during the three-minute break was ice packs and wet towels.
Former US Open runner-up Greg Rusedski was commentating and said: “Wow, this is interesting. He wants the water, the towel, the ice. I don’t know whether it’s an irritation or an inflammation. It’s a little bit strange. Unusual to see the back that red. Maybe it’s severe irritation he’s having from a cream or something, because this is unusual… it’s almost like he’s trying to take something off. I’ve never seen anything like this before!”
Despite the discomfort, Fokina pushed through and beat seventh seed Tiafoe 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 in a close match. This puts him in a fourth-round tie against Hubert Hurkacz.
Foki, as he is often called by fans, is having a huge 2026. He has won his first titles on the ATP Tour and reached the last 16 at Wimbledon.
His wins came at the Mallorca Championships in June and then the Chengdu Open in China in September, where he beat Hurkacz in the final.
The win over Tiafoe was his first against a top-10 player since September 2025, at the Washington Open final.
Fokina is currently ranked 28th in the world, after being as high as 14th.
