Australia's Alexei Popyrin has experienced the biggest day of his tennis career after defeating world No.15 Sebastian Korda 7-6(0), 6-3 to reach his first-ever ATP Masters 1000 final in Montreal.
The win was made all the more impressive having to play back-to-back matches due to heavy rain delays throughout the week, fighting back from a set down against No.4 seed Hubert Hurkacz to claim his third top 10 win at a Masters event. In the semi-final tussle with Korda, the American entered in stellar form - winning the Washington Open title last week and conquering Alexander Zverev earlier in the day to extend his win streak to eight.
A resilient Popyrin fought back from a break down on two occasions in the opening set - including a 5-6 deficit before turning the tables and wrestling back momentum into a tiebreak in which the 25-year-old did not concede a single point.
The Aussie completed the job to triumph in straight sets and ensure a career-high ranking of No.30. A win in tomorrow's final will propel the Sydneysider up to No.23 heading into the Cincinnati Masters later this week. “It means the world. It’s an amazing feeling. It’s an amazing achievement for myself and sometimes you’ve got to pat yourself on the back,” Popyrin said after his semi-final. “I think I’ll do that tonight, but tomorrow it’s all hands on deck and back to work.
“It means a lot. I’ve put a lot of work in this year and last year, especially this year. It finally has paid off a little bit and hopefully it just keeps going because I’m putting in the work and this is a testament for all the work that I’ve put in.” Popyrin will face fifth seed Andrey Rublev tomorrow at 9:30am AEST, who should arrive with confidence having defeated the Russian in April this year at the Monte-Carlo Masters.
“It’s going to be very different. I lost to him on hard court (in Vienna last year). I know he’s a different player on it even though he’s won a Masters event on clay,” he said.
“He plays a tough game on hard court. It’s really quick, it’s really fast, he takes it really early. We had a really solid practice for two hours earlier in the week, so I’ll take some tips from there.
“I think all year I’ve been playing well on the hard courts. Had a few injuries at the start of the year. I missed three important tournaments for me. One in Australia, one in Dubai, one in Indian Wells,” Popyrin said. “Those were three really big tournaments that I missed. but the level of tennis that I was playing at the start of the year was high.
“I played Novak in the Aussie Open, made semis at Doha before I got my injury, played a good tournament in Miami and I think that feeling from the hard court early on in the year has just progressed to the hard court towards the end and it’s really good.”
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