Alexei Popyrin becomes first Aussie Masters winner since Hewitt

August 13, 2024
4:59 pm

Alexei Popyrin becomes first Australian Masters 1000 winner since Lleyton Hewitt

Alexei Popyrin has completed the dream run to his first ATP Masters 1000 title in Montreal, with the Australian revealing the confidence boosting advice that Lleyton Hewitt gave him just a week ago.

Popyrin beat World No.6 Andrey Rublev, 6-2 6-4, to become the first Australian ATP Masters 1000 singles champion since Hewitt back in 2003 at Indian Wells.

Popyrin had never even qualified for the main draw of the Canadian Open prior to this year, and after beating Rublev has risen to a career-high ranking of World No.23.

And the 25-year-old has explained what this means to him, “It means so much, it means the world. All the hard work I’ve put in over the last few years, all the sacrifices. Not just me, but my family, my girlfriend, my team, everyone around me, they’ve just sacrificed their whole lives for me.

“It takes a whole group of people to push you and help you along the way. I definitely wouldn’t be here without them. For me to win this for them, is just amazing.”

Although Popyrin ended up as the champion in Montreal, it was definitely not all plain-sailing after he was forced to save three match points in the third round against Grigor Dimitrov.

The Sydney-born player has described his final victory as ‘the best match’ he has ever played, but claimed that he is more proud of the week as a whole.

“I would say it’s one of the best matches I’ve played in my life,” claimed Popyrin. “I think it’s not a level that I haven’t seen myself produce in practice or an occasional match here and there, but considering the occasion, considering what we were playing for, I think with the level that I played, it probably is the best match that I’ve played in my life.”

Popyrin added, “For me, I’m not kind of most proud about how I played in this final. It’s more how I played throughout the whole week. The level that I produced the whole week to play these top guys. To beat them with the level of tennis that I showed was really a testament to everything.”

1 – Alexei Popyrin is the first player to win the Canadian Open title in his very first main draw appearance at the tournament since Novak Djokovic in 2007. Impact. #OBN24 | @OBNmontreal @atptour @ATPMediaInfo pic.twitter.com/MFl5gxcb47
— OptaAce (@OptaAce) August 13, 2024

After replicating former No.1 Hewitt as the first ATP Masters 1000 singles champion from Australia in 21 years, Popyrin has revealed the inspiring advice that his compatriot gave him after his recent Paris Olympics defeat to Alexander Zverev.

“Lleyton was actually with me at the Olympics last week and he helped me so much in the Olympics and has helped me so much throughout my career,” explained Popyrin. “He gave me some good advice after my match against Zverev at the Olympics.”

Popyrin continued, “He said, ‘You took one of the best players in the world, one of the more informed players in the world, to kind of play some unbelievable tennis to beat you’. I was a break up in that match, so serving for the [first] set and kind of choked it. He kind of flipped the switch on it and kind of told me a positive overlook on that match and then gave me the confidence coming into this week.”

After winning the biggest title of his career, Popyrin is now scheduled to head to Cincinnati where he has a first round match against Gael Monfils, with the winner playing second seed Carlos Alcaraz.

Inside the baseline…

What a fantastic and somewhat unbelievable week from Alexei Popyrin, who had shown some of this form in flashes in the past, but not throughout an entire tournament. A couple of weeks ago, Popyrin suffered a significant ranking drop to outside the top 60 and is now going to be seeded at the US Open, which is a remarkable and very impressive turnaround. There have been numerous potential ATP Masters 1000 singles champions for Australia over the past 21 years and Alexei Popyrin was probably not one on many people’s radars.

Alexei Popyrin and his run to a maiden Masters 1000 title

Prior to this week, Popyrin had not defeated more than one top 20 player in a single week, but in Montreal he beat five!

Here is the Australian’s run to the Canadian Open title:

First Round – Beat Tomas Machac, 6-3 6-4

Second Round – Beat Ben Shelton (11), 6-4 7-6(4)

Third Round – Beat Grigor Dimitrov (7), 4-6 7-6(5) 6-3

Quarter-final – Beat Hubert Hurkacz (4), 3-6 7-6(5) 7-5

Semi-final – Beat Sebastian Korda, 7-6(0) 6-3

Final – Beat Andrey Rublev (5), 6-2 6-4

A run for the ages 🙌@AlexeiPopyrin99 earned five Top-20 wins and saved three match points at #OBN24
R1 Machac 6-3 6-4
R2 [11] Shelton 6-4 7-6
R16 [7] Dimitrov 4-6 7-6 6-3, three match points saved
QF [4] Hurkacz 3-6 7-6 7-5
SF Korda 7-6 6-3
F [5] Rublev 6-2 6-4 pic.twitter.com/jyQVnkS3mx
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) August 13, 2024