Alexei Popyrin was beaten in the first round of the Australian Open for a second consecutive year.
Popyrin is a Masters 1000 champion, having won the Canadian Open title back in 2024 and he has been ranked as high as world number 19.
The Australian has also produced some impressive Grand Slam results, with Popyrin beating Novak Djokovic at the US Open just over a year ago.
However, after Popyrin had a challenging 2025 season, he has lost in the first round of his home major tournament for a second consecutive year.
Following his hugely disappointing defeat in Melbourne, Popyrin was asked why he has decided not to represent Australia at the Davis Cup next month.
Alexei Popyrin justifies decision not to play for Australia at the Davis Cup next month
Popyrin was playing Frenchman Alexandre Muller, who did not win a single Grand Slam match in 2025, in his first round at the Australian Open this year.
Muller’s losing streak at major tournaments looked to be continuing, as Popyrin led by two-sets-to-one and even had a 5-2 lead in the fourth set tie-break.
After being pushed into a fifth and deciding set, Popyrin took another lead and served for the match at 5-3.
However, after failing to do so Popyrin was beaten by Muller, 2-6 6-3 3-6 7-6(5) 7-6(4), in another gut-wrenching first round exit from the Australian Open.
Prior to the Australian Open even getting underway, Australia’s team for their Davis Cup Qualifier against Ecuador had been announced and it was missing both Alex de Minaur and Popyrin.
De Minaur had justified his decision to miss Australia’s Davis Cup tie, and the same questions were brought to Popyrin in his post-match press conference.
While he did not appear to enjoy the timing of the question after such a loss, Popyrin explained that travelling to Ecuador did not fit in well with the rest of his schedule.
“Yeah, I think it’s a little bit tricky to talk about it now, after such a loss. Not a good timing of a question,” said Popyrin.
“Yeah, I think nothing beats playing for your country, but at the same time I have to think about my year. Davis Cup comes at a time in February and in a location where I don’t have any points to defend for quite a while.
“I feel like it’s a good opportunity for me to climb the rankings, and if I sacrifice that to play Davis Cup in Ecuador, where there’s altitude and on clay, it will take two weeks out of the year where I could be playing somewhere else, at this current moment in the year, then yeah. I’d love to play. I’d love to play for my country, but it just didn’t match the schedule.”
With both De Minaur and Popyrin missing from the lineup, Australia’s Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt has instead opted for the likes of James Duckworth, Aleksandar Vukic, Rinky Hijikata, Jordan Thompson and Thanasi Kokkinakis.
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Alexei Popyrin reveals how he is really feeling after losing eighth match in a row
Not only has Popyrin lost in the first round of the Australian Open for a second consecutive year, he has not won a match at any tournament in Australia since 2024.
Popyrin has also failed to win a singles match at any tournament since the US Open last year, with his defeat to Muller his eighth consecutive defeat.
When reflecting on his disappointing run, Popyrin admitted that he may have to take a look at himself.
“I don’t know. I don’t know. For me it’s really tough to take,” responded Popyrin. “I just think I do a lot. I work a lot. I think about my career a lot.
“Yeah, and to have results like this and to have results that I’ve had the last couple of months, and obviously to start the year, it’s not easy to take, even though I feel like I’m playing well and I feel like I’m doing everything that I want to do.
“Yeah, the results are just not coming, and I guess that’s tennis at sometimes. But you have to sometimes maybe, when it keeps happening, keeps on happening, maybe I have to look at myself and see and really look deep inside because it can’t keep going on like this.”
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Despite these setbacks, Popyrin is still the world number 50 and has only 110 ranking points to defend until the clay court swing.
Popyrin will look to return to winning ways at his next tournament, which comes on the indoor hard courts at the Rotterdam Open next month.
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