Catching up with the Montreal Champion: How the…

For Alexei Popyrin, August 11, 2024, is one for the books. And for good reason.

Although the 6’5” Aussie broke into the Top 100 on the eve of his 20th birthday back in June 2019, he’d never really settled in until now. Slowly but surely, he’s been consolidating gains to finally become a threat to the ATP elite.

The NBO is a milestone in Popyrin’s career. It also made him the first Australian to win a Masters 1000 title since his Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt 21 years ago.

On October 31, Popyrin’s season ended in the round of 16 of the Paris Masters at the hands of a masterful Karen Khachanov. Alexei then jetted off to Spain for the Davis Cup Finals, where Hewitt elected to give the court time to World No. 75 Thanasi Kokkinakis.

Despite the disappointment, Popyrin should be very happy about how 2024 unfolded.

Built for the hard courts

Before his Canadian campaign, Alexei hadn’t strung together more than three wins since claiming the titles at the 2023 Croatia Open in Umag (ATP 250) and the Bordeaux Challenger the year before that.

Just as they did for Pablo Carreno Busta in 2022, the courts in Montréal galvanized Popyrin, and he surprised all of tennis when he sat down on Centre Court to take in his tremendous win with a huge smile on his face.

At IGA Stadium, he dismantled six tough opponents, five of whom were in the Top 20 including three in the Top 10, namely No. 39 Tomas Machac, No. 14 Ben Shelton, No. 10 Grigor Dimitrov, No. 6 Hubert Hurkacz, No. 18 Sebastian Korda and No. 8 Andrei Rublev.

On his spectacular run, Popyrin dropped only 2 of 14 sets and collected enough points to move up from No. 62 to No. 23.

Incidentally, he’s the second lowest-ranked player to win the Canadian title since Mikael Pernfors of Sweden, No. 95 in 1993. The city has been happy hunting grounds for underdogs, since it’s crowned five of its lowest-ranked competitors.

After the NBO, Popyrin followed up with two more wins over Top 10 players, upsetting No. 2 Novak Djokovic in the third round of the US Open and kicking No. 5 Daniil Medvedev out of the second round of the Paris Masters in late October.

That’s a record of 28-22 in 2024.

Frequent flyer

The Sydney native has come a long way, literally and figuratively.

The son of Russian immigrants Alex and Helena Popyrin, Alexei took up tennis at the age of four. He was eight when his father moved the family to Dubai and then to Alicante, Nice, Marbella and back to Dubai.

In 2017, he won the junior event at Roland-Garros and joined the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy later that year.

And in case you didn’t know, Patrick Mouratoglou and Alexei’s father are the cofounders of the Ultimate Tennis Showdown, an innovative competition format created during the pandemic.

Alexei Popyrin is currently the Australian No. 2 behind Alex de Minaur, who also happens to be a French Open junior champion.

On and off the courts

The best year of Alexei’s career ended on a very happy personal note, too. He and his longtime girlfriend Amy Pederick got engaged in November.

As it turns out, November was an especially romantic month in the ATP. Casper Ruud proposed to Maria Galligani after six years together, and our very own Félix Auger-Aliassime and Nina Ghaibi announced their engagement.

Congrats all around!

The ATP's best return to Toronto next summer for the National Bank Open July 27 to Aug. 7, 2025 at Sobeys Stadium. 2025 Tickets are on sale. Get your tickets today!

Feature Photo : David Kirouac/USA Today Sports