National Bank Open | The king of comebacks reaches the final

Trailing is nothing to scare Alexei Popyrin. The great underdog had a dream day to reach the final of the National Bank Open. He will face the Russian Andrey Rublev.

Popyrin, 62^e world, won a most unexpected semi-final against Sebastian Korda, 18^eThe game ended in two sets of 7-6 and 6-3.

The waters parted for Korda throughout the tournament to allow him to reach the semi-finals. Two wins by default against Vasek Pospisil and Casper Ruud fell from the sky. Popyrin, however, created his own chance. Shot by shot.

In the third round, he erased three match points against Grigor Dimitrov to stay alive. In the quarterfinals early Saturday afternoon, he overcame a one-set deficit to advance to the next stage.

In the semi-final, Sebastian Korda led 6-5 in the first set. He had just broken the Australian. As he has done since the beginning of the tournament, Popyrin did what he does best: come back from the brink.

With a string of winning forehands, he blanked his opponent in a tiebreaker to advance to the final. The winner, Popyrin raised his arms to the sky, seemingly unable to believe it. Before addressing the crowd, he wrote his tournament motto into the camera: “Hard work pays off.”

Alexei Popyrin was the lowest-ranked player to reach the semi-final since Denis Shapovalov in 2017. By beating Grigor Dimitrov and Hubert Kurkacz, he achieved a career first: defeating two players from the top 10 in the same tournament.

The last of the favorites

Popyrin and Korda can be proud of the spectacle offered to the fans gathered at IGA Stadium. However, when they buy tickets for the finals, it is often in the hope of seeing stars, not underdogs.

In this sense, Andrey Rublev, seeded fifth, came to save the day. The Russian defeated the Italian Matteo Arnaldi in two sets of 6-4 and 6-2. However, it was he who had deprived the spectators of a final with the favorite Jannik Sinner, by eliminating him in the quarter-finals.

“With Jannik I had nothing to lose. The only way to beat him is to play a certain way, I had no choice. I had more pressure today. I had more chances to win “, analyzed Rublev after his victory.

So Arnaldi’s skin was not expected to be worth much. The 46^e player in the world was playing his first career Masters 1000 semi-final. The day before, he was playing his first quarter-final at this level, knocking out the surprising Kei Nishikori from the competition.

“It’s been a tough week with rain, doubles, wind, difficult conditions every day. I didn’t have the best recovery. Yesterday we finished very late, I didn’t go to bed until 3 or 4 in the morning,” Arnaldi commented after the game.

“I didn’t sleep much, but I’m young. That’s no excuse. Andrey played very well,” he admitted.

Under the circumstances, it was no surprise to see Rublev cruise through the first set without difficulty. Only the rain could slow his momentum at the start of the second set, when the score was tied at 1-1. The match was interrupted for just over an hour, leading a large portion of the fans on hand to retreat home.

When the action resumed, Rublev took a few exchanges before getting back into the swing of things, but when he did, Arnaldi, 46,^e in the world, had no chance. The match ended after 1 hour and 18 minutes of play.

“After the rain, when I came back, I played much better. I was more focused. I was able to dictate the point, I was able to be more aggressive,” Rublev said.

The Russian thus reaches his 26th^e final in the ATP, his 6th^e at the Masters 1000 level. Earlier this year, he won the Madrid tournament, eliminating Quebecer Félix Auger-Aliassime in the final.

The Anatomy of a Fall

Earlier in the day, the second and fourth favourites of this edition, Alexander Zverev and Hubert Hurkacz had to pack up and leave.

Zverev first lost in three sets of 7-6, 1-6, 6-4 against Sebastian Korda.

A few minutes after this surprise defeat, it was the turn of fourth seed Hubert Hurkacz to fall. He lost in three sets of 3-6, 7-6 and 7-5.

This edition of the National Bank Open was therefore not a star-studded affair, considering the fall of the four main favorites. Not to mention that the second and third in the world rankings, Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, were missing, after an Olympic final.