Brilliant Popyrin wins biggest title of his career in Montreal

Australian Alexei Popyrin beat Russian Andrey Rublev, the No 5 seed, 6-2, 6-4 to win the Montreal Masters title at Stade IGA on Monday night.

The title is Popyrin’s first Masters 1000 crown, and third ATP-level title of his career. He becomes the first Australian to win the tournament in Montreal since Pat Rafter in 1998.

En route to the Montreal title, Popyrin defeated an incredible five top 20 players in a row, three of whom were top 10 players. Coming into the tournament, Popyrin was ranked No 62 in the world – but cracks a career-high of No 30 after this week.

“It means so much, it means the world,” Popyrin said after the victory.

“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.”

Popyrin sticks to his guns and out-hits Rublev

It’s not often that a player out-hits Rublev, but that’s exactly what Popyrin did on Monday night in Montreal.

The 25-year-old came out with a clear game plan of hitting big on his forehand – a tactic he’d found success with all week in Canada – and executed it perfectly.

Popyrin gained a break in the first game of the match and never looked back, not even faltering when he was broken back in the second set.

Overall, he plundered more than double the number of winners than Rublev, striking 31 to 15, with 18 of these coming from the forehand wing.

He paired this with strong serving – 84 percent of first serve points won – and timely yet effective approaches to the net.

The result was a dominant performance, with Popyrin breaking Rublev four times and winning his first-ever Masters 1000 event in less than an hour and a half.

Popyrin, ranked No 30, defeated Tomas Machac (6-3, 6-4), American Ben Shelton, the No 11 seed (6-4, 7-6 (4)), Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, the No 7 seed (4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3), Pole Hubert Hurkacz, the No 4 seed (3-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5) and American Sebastian Korda (7-6, 6-3) ahead of his victory.

In the previous rounds of the Rogers Cup, Rublev, ranked No 6, defeated Argentinian Tomas Martin Etcheverry (7-6 (3), 6-2), American qualifier Brandon Nakashima (6-2, 6-2), Italian Jannik Sinner, the top seed (6-3, 1-6, 6-2) and Italian Matteo Arnaldi (6-4, 6-2).

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