Alexei Popyrin's Montreal Masters title and the simplicity of seizing a tennis moment (2024)

The first Australian male player to win an ATP 1000 tennis tournament since Lleyton Hewitt in 2003.

The first ATP player to beat five top-20 players en route to a title in 2024 and the fourth man to do it since 2020, after Daniil Medvedev, Holger Rune, and Novak Djokovic.

The first ATP player to win the Canadian Open on their main draw debut since Djokovic in 2007.

Alexei Popyrin won’t have been thinking about any of that when he fell to the floor and roared with delight on Monday night in Montreal, having dispatched Andrey Rublev 6-2, 6-4 to win his first Masters 1000 title at 25.

He didn’t think much of it afterwards, either. “Wow,” was all he could muster when he stepped up to the microphone.

“It takes a whole group of people to push you along the way,” Popyrin said, reflecting on the irony that he had claimed a title in the absence of his girlfriend, who normally travels with him around the tour. He did remember to clarify his hope that they would be together for the U.S. Open.

“My girlfriend and family… they’ve sacrificed so much,” he said.

Popyrin’s magnanimity is a staple of the tennis tournament winner’s speech, whether a first tour title or a 50th, and his team and family have helped him take huge strides in his career. His raw talent has not been in doubt since winning the French Open boys’ singles title in 2017, but tennis is a sport of putting talent to use at the right moment.

Having had a modest but evident upswing over the last 52 weeks, including close matches against Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open and, to a lesser extent, Wimbledon, he put all the parts together at once in Canada when doing so could actually be enough to win a tournament.

That was the defining factor in Popyrin’s Montreal win: he seized his moment, at a time of tennis flux that only happens every four years. He moved himself up to No 23 in the world and secured a seeding for the U.S. Open, barring a disastrous confluence of events in Cincinnati this week.

Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz were not in attendance after their Olympic gold medal match exploits in Paris. The top players in attendance were coming off the Olympics, where Popyrin went out relatively early, giving him time to acclimatise to conditions in Canada. The ATP Masters 1000 tournaments — one rung below a Grand Slam tournament — have had six different winners in their last six editions, having at one point gone on a run of four players (Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Andy Murray) winning 54 of 58 between 2011 and 2017.

He won in three sets against Hubert Hurkacz, who had played two three-set matches already after coming off knee surgery that some doctors recommended he give until January to recover. Popyrin was 4-6, 2-3* down when Hurkacz played a lax, physically hampered and error-strewn service game to let the Australian back in; he would save five more crucial break points in the match.

He fended off three match points in the previous round against Grigor Dimitrov, as well as a 15-30 point that would have been 15-40 and two match points in a row if not for a very fortunate net cord.

Taken in bad faith, some of these things might sound like apologia or good fortune, but that is the nature of tennis and of seizing the moment: winning against what is immediately in front of you. Popyrin saved plenty more difficult situations with accurate serving and clinical ball-striking under pressure.

Still, Popyrin did not beat five top-20 players in a row purely because of external factors. At 6ft 6in (198cm), his serve (and serve-plus-one — ie, points won on the third shot of a rally after the serve and a return) have always been weapons.

According to data from Tennis Abstract, he made fewer first serves but won more points behind them in Montreal than in the past 52 weeks, and he made his forehand not just a weapon, but also a consistent match-winning factor, over and above his average on that wing in the same timeframe.

Inside-in, he hit more forehands in, at higher speed, closer to the lines, and with more spin. He repeated the trick inside-out, but added less spin — showing a willingness to flatten out his forehand with aggression on that side. He figured out how he would win, and then used slice and patience to keep opponents off his weaker backhand as long as he could.

That won’t always be enough to win a tournament, but in Montreal it was — and the final encapsulated that more than any other match.

When Rublev and Popyrin grooved, the Russian had the upper hand. So, Popyrin didn’t let him groove. There were 22 rallies of nine shots or more, of which Rublev won 14. There were 21 rallies of between five and eight shots, of which Popyrin won 13. There were 81 rallies with between zero and four shots (it’s normal for this to be the most common range), of which Popyrin won 50 of 81.

Seize the moment. It won’t always be there.

(Top photo: Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)

James Hansen is a Senior Editor for The Athletic covering tennis. Prior to joining The Athletic in 2024, he spent just under five years as an editor at Vox Media in London. He attended Cambridge University, where he played college tennis (no relation to the American circuit), and is now a team captain at Ealing Tennis Club in west London. Follow James on Twitter @jameskhansen