Australia’s Alexi Popyrin revealed that his unexpected triumph at the Canadian Open occurred after he received some tips from Lleyton Hewitt.
The 25-year-old capped off a dream tournament in Montreal by defeating Andrey Rublev 6-2, 6-4, in the final on Monday evening. Popyrin won 84% of his first service points and hit three times more winners than unforced errors (31-10) en route to the biggest title of his career. Until the tournament, he had only won two ATP 250 trophies.
Popyrin’s run to the title saw him beat five top 20 players which is something that hasn’t been achieved at an ATP event since Novak Djokovic at the 2022 Tour Finals. He will rise to 23rd in the rankings which should guarantee that he will be seeded at the US Open later this month.
“I would say it’s one of the best matches I’ve played in my life.” He said after beating Rublev.
“I think it’s not a level that I haven’t seen myself produce in practice or in an occasional match here and there, but considering the occasion, considering what we were playing for, I think with the level that I played, it probably is the best match that I’ve played in my life.
“I’m not kind of most proud about how I played in this final. It’s more how I played throughout the whole week, the level that I produced the whole week to play these top guys. To beat them with the level of tennis that I showed was really a testament to everything.”
The breakthrough performance comes after Popyrin received some advice from fellow compatriot Hewitt during the Paris Olympic Games. At the Olympics, he reached the third round before losing 7-5, 6-3, to Alexander Zverev.
“Lleyton was actually with me at the Olympics last week and he helped me so much in the Olympics and has helped me so much throughout my career. He gave me some good advice after my match against Zverev at the Olympics,” said Popyrin.
“He said, ‘You took one of the best players in the world, one of the more informed players in the world, to kind of play some unbelievable tennis to beat you’. I was a break up in that match, so serving for the [first] set and kind of choked it.
“He kind of flipped the switch on it and kind of told me a positive overlook on that match and then gave me the confidence coming into this week.”
Popyrin has long been tipped as the next big talent in Australian tennis after a successful junior career where he won the 2017 French Open boy’s title and peaked at a high of No.2 in the junior standings. He made his Grand Slam debut at the age of 18 at the Australian Open.
However, he admits the transition into the professional circuit was far from straightforward.
“When you do win that slam in juniors, you kind of think, okay, now the next step is going to be easy, but it’s far from that.” He explains.
“To break the top 500 is really hard. To break the top 250 is really hard. To break the top 100 is another level. Then tostay in the top 100 is even harder than that. Then to break the top 50 is even harder than that.”
There will be little time for Popyrin to rest as he heads to Cincinnati for the Western and Southern Open, where he is defending a big chunk of points after reaching the quarter-finals there 12 months ago. He has been handed a tough draw. Should he win his opening match against Gael Monfils, he will then face Carlos Alcaraz.
