MONTREAL: Alexei Popyrin won the biggest title of his career at the ATP Montreal Masters while Jessica Pegula became the first back-to-back champion at WTA Toronto Masters since 2000 on Monday.
World number 62 Popyrin profited from the mental fragility of Andrey Rublev as the Australian beat sixth-ranked Rublev 6-2, 6-4 in 90 minutes in the US Open tuneup, denying the Russian a second Masters crown this season after winning at Madrid.
“One of the best matches I’ve played in my life,” Popyrin said of the victory. “It’s not the way I played in that final that makes me most proud. It’s more the way I played all week.”
Popyrin is the first Australian to win a Masters 1000 title since Lleyton Hewitt in 2003 at Indian Wells.
The only other Aussie to reach a Canadian final was Patrick Rafter in 2001, who lost to Romanian Andrei Pavel.
Popyrin, who turned 25 last week, is the fourth from his nation to win at this level, following Rafter (1998 Toronto, 1998 Cincinnati), Mark Philippoussis (1999 Indian Wells) and Hewitt (2002-2003 Indian Wells).
“This means so much, it means the world,” an emotional Popyrin said. “All the hard work we’ve put in over the last couple of years has paid off.”
Popyrin, who beat American Sebestian Korda in the semi-final, said he never felt much pressure.
“I felt pretty calm. I love to play matches like this. There is no point in being nervous or afraid of the opportunity,” he said.
Rublev, who has boiled over several times this season on court and confessed to dealing with mental stress, got off to a poor start and took out his frustrations early through screaming, kicking a towel container and generally breaking down in tight moments.
His form in knocking out world number one Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals was barely visible as he ran into an inspired Popyrin.
But Rublev said that from a month ago his head is “clear” and his mental attitude is improving.
“A month ago I was (mis)behaving much more. I showed emotions today but compared to other matches I did a better job.’ said Rublev, who was disqualified from Dubai in February for angrily confronting a linesman.
“I would call this a very positive and very good week. It was a big step forward. I’m proud I was able to play really good mentally all week.”
In the women’s event, Pegula downed Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 in an all-American final, capturing her sixth career WTA title and second of the year after Berlin in June to become the first consecutive winner in Canada since Martina Hingis in 1999-2000.
“Crazy. I can’t believe it. I wanted it so bad,” a tearful Pegula, who beat Russian Diana Shnaider in the semi-final, said. “Getting emotional thinking about it. I’m so happy to take the title here. It’s awesome. I’m just flooded with emotions.
“It has been an up-and-down year but these are happy tears. I’m so happy.”
Pegula said she was happy to have won the Canadian crown in both of the event’s alternating home cities, Montreal and Toronto, which is near her own hometown of Buffalo, New York.
Her grandparents, one from Toronto and the other from Montreal, were in the audience.
“One in each city so that’s one for each of you,” Pegula said.
Anisimova dispatched four top-20 rivals this week to reach her fourth career WTA final, but could not claim a third title after Bogota in 2019 and Melbourne in 2022.
Anisimova took a nine-month mental health break from tennis last year and fell to 373rd in the world rankings at the start of the year, but ensured a return to the top 50 with her runner-up finish.
“I put the work in, I kept my head down and I tried to come back to the sport with more of a relaxed feeling,” Anisimova said.
“Trying to enjoy each day as it comes and not being so serious about everything, because I think that takes away the joy from a lot of things. I think with that kind of approach to my everyday life, I think that’s helped me a lot.”
Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2024