Battle-tested Alexei Popyrin reaches final in Montreal

 

[August 12, 2024]  Australia's Alexei Popyrin continued his stunning run at the National Bank Open, advancing to the final with a 7-6 (0), 6-3 sweep of Sebastian Korda of the United States on Sunday night in Montreal.

Popyrin has played spoiler over the course of the entire tournament, and he started Sunday off strong with a 3-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5 upset of No. 4 seed Hubert Hurkacz of Poland.

On Saturday, Popyrin ousted Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, the seventh seed. He also sank No. 11 seed Ben Shelton of the U.S. in the second round.

It looked like Popyrin was going to be forced to rally if he wanted to reach the final, as Korda held a 6-5 lead in the first set. But the Australian went on to force a tiebreaker, where he crushed Korda 7-0.

Korda never led during the second set.

"It's an amazing achievement for myself to be honest, and sometimes you have to pat yourself on the back," Popyrin said Sunday of reaching the final. "I'll do that tonight but tomorrow it's all hands on deck and back to work."

No. 5 seed Andrey Rublev of Russia will try to slow down Popyrin in the final after beating Italian Matteo Arnaldi 6-4, 6-2 in the semifinals on Sunday.

Rublev converted 3 of 3 break points and finished with 17 winners to Arnaldi's 10. He won the final five games of the match, even after rain had suspended play for 1 hour, 40 minutes.

"The wait has been worth it. I'm happy to be in my first Canadian final," Rublev said. "I just want to recover, rest well and be ready for (Monday)."

Losing to Popyrin put a damper on an otherwise impressive day for Korda, who earlier had picked up a rare win over a top-five foe. The 24-year-old pulled off a 7-6 (5), 1-6, 6-4 upset of No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinals, collecting seven aces and 19 winners while taking advantage of 11 double faults from the German.

Zverev entered Sunday sitting fourth in the PIF ATP Rankings. It was just Korda's second win in 14 matches against top-five competition.

"It means a lot. It's been a tough year before the U.S. hard-court swing," Korda said. "I've just put in a lot of work, and I'm so happy with the results right now. I'm just really enjoying my time on court. Having fun, trying to play aggressive, keep doing my thing, and hope for the best."

In Sunday's other quarterfinal match, Hurkacz saved 18 of 21 break points against Popyrin and seemingly had him on the ropes after going up 3-1 in the second set. But Popyrin stayed composed and eventually forced a tiebreaker, during which he never trailed.

Popyrin faced more adversity in the third set, though, falling behind 5-4. However, he buckled down to win the final three games of the match to set up the meeting with Korda.

--Field Level Media

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