Alexei Popyrin on Monday profited from the mental fragility of Andrey Rublev as the Australian won the biggest title of his career at the National Bank Open in Montreal.
World No. 62 Popyrin beat sixth-ranked Rublev 6-2, 6-4 in 90 minutes in the US Open tuneup, denying the Russian a second Masters crown this season after winning at Madrid.
“One of the best matches I’ve played in my life,” Popyrin said. “It’s not the way I played in that final that makes me most proud. It’s more the way I played all week.”
Photo: AFP
Popyrin is the first Australian to win a Masters 1000 title since Lleyton Hewitt at Indian Wells in 2003. The only other Australian to reach a Canadian final was Patrick Rafter in 2001, who lost to Romanian Andrei Pavel.
Popyrin, who turned 25 last week, is the fourth person from his nation to win at this level, following Rafter (1998 Toronto, 1998 Cincinnati), Mark Philippoussis (1999 Indian Wells) and Hewitt (2002 and 2003 Indian Wells).
“This means so much, it means the world,” Popyrin said. “All the hard work we’ve put in over the last couple of years has paid off.”
Photo: Dan Hamilton-USA Today
Popyrin, who beat five top-20 opponents during his run to Canadian glory, said he never felt much pressure.
“I felt pretty calm. I love to play matches like this. There is no point in being nervous or afraid of the opportunity,” he said. “I wanted to impose myself in the first game and I think I managed to do that. It disturbed him a little bit, which was part of the game plan. I kept going in that way.”
Rublev, who has boiled over several times this season on court and confessed to dealing with mental stress, got off to a poor start and took out his frustrations early through screaming, kicking a towel container and generally breaking down in tight moments.
His form in knocking out world No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals was barely visible as he ran into an inspired Popyrin.
Yet Rublev said that from a month ago his head is “clear” and his mental attitude is improving.
“A month ago I was [mis]behaving much more. I showed emotions today, but compared to other matches I did a better job,’” said Rublev, who was disqualified from Dubai in February for angrily confronting a linesman.
“I would call this a very positive and very good week. It was a big step forward. I’m proud I was able to play really good mentally all week,” he said.
In the women’s singles, Jessica Pegula defeated Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 in an all-American final to win the National Bank Open in Toronto, becoming the event’s first back-to-back champion since 2000.
Sixth-ranked Pegula captured her sixth career WTA title and second of the year after Berlin in June to become the first consecutive winner in Canada since Martina Hingis in 1999 and 2000.
“Crazy. I can’t believe it. I wanted it so bad,” Pegula said. “Getting emotional thinking about it. I’m so happy to take the title here. It’s awesome. I’m just flooded with emotions.”
“It has been an up-and-down year but these are happy tears. I’m so happy,” she added.
Pegula said she was happy to have won the Canadian crown in both of the event’s alternating home cities, Montreal and Toronto, which is near her own hometown of Buffalo, New York.
Her grandparents, one from Toronto and the other from Montreal, were in the audience.
“One in each city, so that’s one for each of you,” Pegula said.
Taiwan kept their hopes of advancing to next year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome on Saturday, backed by solid pitching. Taiwan last night played against Nicaragua. As of press time, Nicaragua was leading 6-0. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan on Saturday kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen struck out one and allowed no hits, except for a hit-by-pitch over
Taiwan kept its hopes of advancing to the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome last night, backed by solid pitching. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. The win was crucial for Taiwan, as a loss would have eliminated the team from contention for the next WBC. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸) struck out one and allowed no hits, except for
Team Taiwan are set to face Spain in a win-or-go-home match tonight for the final berth at the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC), despite losing to Nicaragua 6-0 in the WBC qualifier at the Taipei Dome on Sunday. The home team’s loss on Sunday means Nicaragua finish first in the qualifier round in Taipei with a perfect 3-0 record and advances to next year’s finals. After crushing South Africa 9-1 earlier on Sunday, Spain took second place in the four-team qualifier with a 2-1 record. With a 1-2 record, Taiwan finished third while South Africa placed at the bottom with
Team Taiwan avoided missing the World Baseball Classic (WBC) for the first time by defeating Spain 6-3 in a do-or-die game in Taipei last night. After narrowly escaping a mercy-rule loss to Spain in the WBC Qualifiers opener on Friday last week, the home team — winner of last year's WBSC Premier12 title three months ago — got their revenge against the 2023 European champions at Taipei Dome. "It felt quite different from when we won the Premier12," Taiwan captain Chen Chieh-hsien (陳傑憲) said after the game, recalling the ups and downs the team has experienced over the past few days. Unlike in
RSS