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@AlexeiPopyrin99‘s exploits since August:
5 High-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 High-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 try to let it fireplace me, moderately than put me down and demotivate me,” Popyrin stated. “It positively fired me up, in all probability woke me up a little bit bit, and made me play a little bit bit extra free.
“To get the job executed right here, on the final Masters of the yr the place I actually wished to go deep, this can be 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.
