Rublev failed to win the third Masters after Monte Carlo and Madrid. But Popyrin, who had previously won only minor titles in the ATP-250 category in Singapore 2021 and Umag 2023, won such an important trophy for the first time in his career. And absolutely deservedly so.
– Alexey and his team had an amazing week and worked hard to win. He beat very strong opponents, had a tough goalkeeping. And the natural success in the final is a great achievement. “I am very happy for him,” Andrey congratulated his opponent.
In Montreal, Popyrin really experienced his finest hour. Alexey became the first Australian tennis player since Lleyton Hewitt in 2001 to win a Masters tournament. There were only four thousand-meter champions from Australia. Popyrin joined Hewitt, Patrick Rafter and Mark Philippoussis. As for the Canadian tournament itself, Alexey eliminated only opponents who were above him in the ranking (as a result, the Australian rose from 62nd place to the top thirty). Three of them were in the top 10. These were Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov (10), in the match with whom Alexey came back from three match points, Pole Hubert Hurkacz (6), who won a set and a break, as well as Rublev (he started eighth, but by the time of the match had already risen to sixth place in the updated ranking), which Popyrin was able to cope with without problems.
Andrei himself, who, by the way, defeated world number one Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals, did not have a good final match: the balls went in and out of the net. At the press conference, Rublev even joked: “After all the matches, I felt that I was playing very well and deserved to win, but in the end I committed suicide.”
During the final, the Russian, of course, did not laugh. He was noticeably nervous, swore, but still did not come to a bloody confrontation with himself, when he broke his knee with a racket. Andrey continues to work on his psychological stability.
“I made a big step forward and I’m proud of myself for holding up so well mentally throughout the week, even taking into account the final match,” Rublev said. – If you accept defeat and are willing to learn, it gives a big boost to development. This week was good for my game, level and rating. And now we are focused on learning from our mistakes and approaching the most important tournament, the US Open, in optimal moral and physical condition. I have another tournament – Cincinnati. It will be a difficult net and there will be very little time to adapt, but I will try to play tennis and enjoy it.
In Montreal, Rublev once again thanked former ATP ranking leader Marat Safin for his support, with whom he had an important conversation after the disastrous Wimbledon, where Andrei lost a five-set match in the first round to the then world number 122, Argentine Francisco Comesaña – 4:6, 7:5, 2:6, 6:7 (5:7).
“I tried to understand myself by attending psychologists and various courses, but the one who helped me a lot and made me understand something about myself was Marat Safin,” Rublev stressed. – It’s funny, but it’s true (Safin himself was very excited on the court and loved to hit rackets. – Note “RG”). For this I am very grateful to Marat.
