Alexei Popyrin has become the Montreal Masters champion by beating Andrey Rublev in the final to claim the silverware.
It’s been 21 years of hurt for the Australian player in his quest to finally win an ATP 1000 event as a professional player.
The other two titles he won were both ATP 250 events and this is the tip of the iceberg as far as his career is concerned.
Following a 6-2, 6-4 victory, he collapsed to the floor and naturally got quite emotional after claiming his maiden Masters 1000 title.
Popyrin will now be able to place this trophy as pride of place on his mantlepiece and he will take some confidence to the Cincinnati Open this week.
He faces Gael Monfils tomorrow in the round of 64 and it will be interesting to see what he can produce following this maiden ATP 1000 win.
Nick Kyrgios reacts as Alexei Popyrin claims first ATP Masters 1000 title
Australian tennis looks to be on the rise and this performance caps off a decent few weeks for the contingent of players from that part of the world.
Jordan Thompson has had decent results of late, whilst Matthew Ebden and John Peers won gold in the men’s doubles at the Olympics.
After Popyrin had lifted the trophy, Kyrgios took to X to express his pride at seeing his fellow countryman get the victory.
He posted: “Incredible effort.”
Popyrin will hope this catapults him forward in his career and he will now have the confidence in future events having got the first one off of his back.
Popyrin will hope to kick on after claiming biggest win
At 25-years-old the player does have time on his side but he will definitely be pleased to tick this one off.
Popyrin came through some tough matches over the last week and now he will fancy causing a stir in Cincinnati this week.
Right now, the Sydney-born player is the 23rd-best player in the world according to the rankings and now he will want to push towards the top 10.
Popyrin’s form at the Grand Slam events has been nothing short of abysmal really for a player of his quality.
He’s never reached the fourth round at any of the four events and that has to change for a player boasting his quality.
After winning the title in Montreal, it will now be fascinating to see what he can do at the US Open when it begins later this month.
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