“The hard work has paid off” – the advent of Alexei Popyrin

Alexei Popyrin will leave Canada with a big smile on his face.

In Montreal, he won the biggest title of his career, earning his first 1000-level trophy. On the way to his surprise success, the Australian eliminated five top-20 players (Shelton, Dimitrov, Hurkacz, Korda, Rublev) to become the fourth Australian to add his name to the list of winners of such a tournament, and the first since Lleyton Hewitt at Indian Wells in 2003.

In the final, he knocked out world No. 6 Andrey Rublev, who was playing his sixth Masters 1000 final. The biggest win of his career? Popyrin is convinced is it.

“It’s one of the best matches I’ve played in my life. It’s a level that I haven’t reached in training or in a match,” Popyrin said in his post-match press conference.

“I’m not proud just of the way I played in that final. It’s more the way I’ve played all week, the level I’ve reached throughout the week to face these players. Beating them with the level of tennis I showed is really proof of all that.

“I’ve been saying all week that the hard work I’ve put in over the last few years seems to have paid off this week.”

Popyrin became the second-lowest-ranked winner in the tournament’s history, behind Sweden’s Mikael Pernfors, who was ranked 95th when he won in 1993.

a change of approach

On many occasions during the tournament, Popyrin found himself with his back against the wall. In the round of 16, the new world No 30 (62nd before the start of the tournament) saved three match points on his way to eliminating Grigor Dimitrov.

This desire not to give up is what the Australian seems to have found in Canada this week, coming at the most opportune of times in the Montreal Masters.

“There are a lot of things behind the scenes that I won’t go into too much detail about. I’ve made a few changes since I started as a young player. It’s just my way of working. My way of seeing things,” he explained.

“At the beginning of my career, it was about not getting hurt, just playing and not getting injured. Now it’s about building a body, building an athlete, which we’ve been doing for two years now.

“I felt it on the court. It just shows that all the work we do that allows us to build an athlete. I don’t think we’re finished. My personal trainer tells me that I still have a lot of work to do. I’m not looking forward to it, but I’m going to do it. That’s for sure.”

The icing on the cake is that Popyrin will be entitled to a private jet to Cincinnati. This is the case for all the semi-finalists.

“Just before the semi-finals, we said to ourselves, ‘Let’s go get this private jet’. I’ve never taken a private jet in my life, so it will be a first for me tomorrow morning,” he joked.

Montreal 2024, a place of great firsts for Popyrin.

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