Alexei Popyrin stuns Andrey Rublev at Montreal Masters, ends 21-year drought | Tennis

Alexei Popyrin has continued his run of giant-killing to become the first Australian in more than two decades to win the Masters 1000 title with a resounding victory in the final in Montreal.

Popyrin combined sublime touch with ferocious firepower to defeat the volatile Russian world number six, Andrei Rublev, 6-2 6-4 in one hour and 29 minutes to win the third – and biggest – ATP Tour title of his career on Tuesday.

The 25-year-old won a monster cheque of $1.05 million (Australian $1.6 million) after becoming the first Australian to win a Masters 1000 event since Lleyton Hewitt won back-to-back at Indian Wells when he was world number one in 2002-03.

“It means so much, it means the world,” Popyrin said. “All the hard work I’ve done over the years. All the sacrifices I’ve made, not just me, but my family, my girlfriend, my team, everyone around me.

“They sacrificed their lives for me and to win this for them is just amazing.”

By finishing in the top 20 five times in a row during the week, Popyrin improved his ranking from 62nd to 23rd in the world and secured a valuable first Grand Slam seeding for the US Open, which starts in 13 days.

Popyrin defeated Washington title winner Sebastian Korda in last week’s semifinals after having previously defeated fourth-seeded Hubert Hurkacz and 11th-seeded Ben Shelton and saved three match points in the third round against seventh-seeded Grigor Dimitrov.

The former Roland Garros junior champion’s last defeat came against eventual champion Novak Djokovic at the Paris Olympics.

But Montreal’s lowest-ranked finalist since Harel Levy in 2000 made a fantastic transition from clay to hard court and showed few signs of nerves under the bright lights of Court Central.

Rublev had defeated top-seeded Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner in the quarterfinals and was chasing his 17th career title.

But it was Popyrin the underdog who set the tone with a blazing start, opening the match with a blistering forehand return winner and breaking Rublev to love.

The Russian’s volcanic temperament was immediately apparent as he angrily cursed himself after making several double faults, giving Popyrin the opportunity.

Popyrin consolidated and then made three aces to overcome a double break deficit in the fourth game and hold on, before taking a second service break to take a 4-1 lead.

He took set point with a surprising 167 km/h off-forehand winner and finished it off after just 35 minutes.

The Sydneysider was on course for the finish after taking a third service break in the second game of the second set and then had a point for a double break.

Popyrin could have blinked, or even folded, after dropping his serve for the first time, allowing Rublev to get back into the match at 3-3. Instead, he broke straight back with another huge forehand winner.

Even after losing a gruelling 25-stroke rally, Popyrin recovered immediately with his tenth ace to earn match point.

Rublev saved two but not a third, while Popyrin made a perfect three-for-three in the final to add the Montreal title to his 2021 breakthrough in Singapore and his 2023 title in Umag, Croatia.

“I want to congratulate Alexei for his great week and his team for his great effort, he beat some really great players,” he said. “He had a really tough draw, he finished really late last night and then won the title. That’s a really big achievement.”