MONTREAL: Australia’s Alexei Popyrin, the No. 62-ranked player in the world, defeated fifth-seeded Andrey Rublev of Russia 6-2, 6-4 at the National Bank Open on Monday night to win the biggest singles title of his career.
Popyrin had two lower-level ATP Tour titles on his resume coming into a week in which he faced five top-20 players in a row — and defeated all of them.
First came No. 11 seed Ben Shelton in the second round, then No. 7 seed Grigor Dimitrov, a contest in which he saved three match points. In the quarterfinals came No. 4 seed Hubert Hurkacz, who was up a set and a break in the second before Popyrin came back to win 7-5 in the third set.
Then American Sebastian Korda, who won the tournament in Washington, D.C., last week and was on a nine-match winning streak, in the semifinals late Sunday night.
And finally Rublev, who was looking for his third career ATP Masters 1000 title, his first on hard courts. But he had no answers against a player with whom he often trains at their mutual home base in Monte Carlo.
“I played a really, really high level of tennis, which I believed that I could play my whole life. But to put it into five matches in a row against — I mean, six matches in a row against really high quality opponents is something else,” Popyrin said.
Once it was over, Popyrin put his hands to his face and let the tears flow.
Popyrin won the first seven points of the match and from there, the hill was just too steep to climb for Rublev, who moves from No. 8 to No. 6 in the rankings with a week that included a win over world No. 1 Jannik Sinner.
Popyrin will rise in the rankings from No. 62 to No. 23.
“I wanted to put a statement in the first game, and I think I did that, which I think rattled him a little bit, which was part of the game plan. I just continued from there,” Popyrin said.
As with Rublev, whose on-court emotions have often held back his career progress, Popyrin had been known more for his temper on the court than his game.
On Monday night, he was cool, calm and collected.
Rublev wasn’t as serene. But he’s happy with his progress on that front.
“Even today, because if we go back even one month ago — or even compare my match against (Popyrin) at Monte Carlo (in April) when I was losing, I was behaving 10 times (worse) — and it was the first round,” he said.
“Here, it was a final. Much more pressure. Yes, I still showed a bit emotions today, but compared to the matches when I was losing the same way, I think I did much better job. That’s why I had a little chance in the second set, but it was just not my time, I guess.”