Alexei Popyrin landed his fifth win from six matches towards top-10 opponents as Alex de Minaur closed on an ATP Finals berth on the Masters 1000 occasion.
Melbourne, 31 October 2024 | Dan Imhoff
Alexei Popyrin’s giant-slaying methods have claimed his 11th top-10 sufferer after a slender 6-4 2-6 7-6(4) victory over world No.5 Daniil Medvedev on the Paris Masters.
The win gave the world No.24 his fifth win from his previous six matches towards top-10 gamers on a fruitful run that started in Montreal in August.
It ensured three Australians reached the spherical of 16 after ninth seed Alex de Minaur saved his ATP Finals hopes alive with a 6-4 7-6(5) win over Miomir Kecmanovic.
Jordan Thompson had already sealed his berth following an upset of Casper Ruud on Wednesday.
Popyrin rode out a string of momentum shifts from 1-3 within the opening set and let slip a 4-1 lead within the deciding set earlier than a degree replay down break level at 4-all examined his resolve.
Poppin’ OFF 💥@AlexeiPopyrin99‘s exploits since August:
5 Prime-20 wins throughout maiden masters title run in Montreal ☑️
Upset No.2 Djokovic en path to maiden Grand Slam spherical of 16 at US Open ☑️
Defeats No.4 Medvedev for second Prime-5 win of 2024 🙌#RolexParisMasters pic.twitter.com/P1Fx2vH8Fc— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 30, 2024
He steadied himself to oust the previous champion and set a showdown with the in-form Karen Khachanov, the current Almaty champion.
“Stuff like that, I attempt to let it hearth me, fairly than put me down and demotivate me,” Popyrin stated. “It positively fired me up, most likely woke me up slightly bit, and made me play slightly bit extra free.
“To get the job finished right here, on the final Masters of the yr the place I actually needed to go deep, it is a nice step.”
The 25-year-old knocked out three top-10 rivals en path to his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title in Canada earlier than he sprung a US Open boilover towards then No.2 Novak Djokovic.
Earlier this month he introduced down Grigor Dimitrov within the Shanghai third spherical.
De Minaur, in the meantime, closed to inside 75 factors of reserving an ATP Finals debut together with his second-round win.
The 25-year-old has an opportunity to surpass Andrey Rublev within the race ought to he achieve revenge over his US Open conqueror, Jack Draper, subsequent.
A quarterfinalist final yr, it booked De Minaur’s fifth final 16 exhibiting in Paris in six appearances.