A fortnight after joining some Australian greats as a Masters champion, Alexei Popyrin realised his best hopes of success at the US Open, beginning on Monday night (AEST), involved taking a step away from the bright lights of the tour.
The 25-year-old, who is seeded at a grand slam for the first time courtesy of his stunning breakthrough in Montreal earlier in August, loves New York for its restaurants and quipped it is among the few US cities capable of holding a handle to Europe or Australia.
But determined to ensure he was fresh enough to fire at Flushing Meadows over the next fortnight, Popyrin spent the past week preparing in Bluegrass country in Lexington, where the only fast-lanes are associated with the famous racetrack that hosts the Kentucky Derby.
“It just gets a bit rowdy and crazy there, but I do love New York,” he told foxsports.com.au.
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That the 26th seed is approaching the US Open with confidence is scarcely surprising given the magnitude of his Masters triumph in Montreal, which ended a 21-year drought dating back to Lleyton Hewitt’s successful title defence at Indian Wells in 2003.
Pat Rafter and Mark Philippoussis are the only other Australian men to win a Masters, which are the highest-tier tournaments on the ATP Tour aside from the four grand slams, under the current format.
He did it with distinction, posting top 10 wins over Andrey Rublev, Hubert Hurkacz and Grigor Dimitrov and another two victories over top 20-ranked rivals Seb Korda and Ben Shelton following a first round win over Tomas Machac in the best performance of his career.
Adjusting his mindset in several facets proved the key to Popyrin, a former Roland Garros boys champion, delivering on his potential.
Popyrin’s talent has never been in doubt, but his consistency of performance was a challenge.
In the infancy of his career, he showed great promise in grand slam tournaments, either beating or testing top-tier talents, but then struggled at the smaller ATP Tour events when there was less hype and focus.
His time in the gym was aimed at ensuring he did not get injured rather than building a base that would propel him forward and allow him to fulfil his potential.
Losses were seen through the prism of defeat, rather than being considered a teaching tool or something on which to build from, even though he did have a title win in Singapore and top 60 ranking aged 22.
Having shaped as the Aussie to keep Alex de Minaur company as he zoomed up the rankings, instead Popyrin found himself back outside the top 100 two years ago and floundering in the wake of the three-time grand slam quarterfinalist.
“When I was a junior, you come off winning (the) French Open (and a ranking of) No. 2 in the world juniors, (so) you kind of think, ‘Ok, you’re bound to succeed. You’re bound to go to the top quickly,’” he said.
“I saw a lot of players that I kind of grew up in juniors who kind of took the next step really quickly. I was only 21-years-old and I thought, ‘Okay, there’s no chance I’m going to kind of drop out of the rankings and I’m just going to continue building from there.’
“But the next year I kind of lost all my points basically. I won (only) three matches on tour (and) dropped outside the top 120. I had to get a wild card into Australian Open. From then it was … like just building blocks step-by-step, getting back to where we wanted to get to.
“That was last year, which was a really big year for me, winning the clay court title in Umag and then playing some good Masters tournaments here and there, and solidifying my spot back inside the top 50.”
For the past couple of seasons, Popyrin has been guided by former mercurial Belgian Xavier Malisse and South African Neville Godwin, whose advice included a key target area if he was to maximise his potential – get fitter and get tougher.
After an early exit in the Cincinnati Masters, which is not that surprising given the challenge of backing up from a deep run in the Canadian Open, he was back busting a gut in Kentucky.
The grind is not something he particularly enjoys, the right-hander said, but he does love winning and he has come to accept that the latter will not occur without plenty of the former.
“It’s not something that I recommend doing, but honestly, it’s just been a lot of hard work in the gym,” he said.
“It’s a lot of weights, sort of capacity building, capacity training that my coach likes to say (is about) getting the muscles and body strong enough to be able to sustain long time on court, and about trying to get more explosiveness out of it, which I feel like has been coming along quite, quite well. After I lost in Cincinnati, I took a few days off (and then got) back into the gym.
“I do enjoy being surrounded by people who are knowledgeable and really want to help you, and that’s the kind of people that I surrounded myself with.”
The strength and condition work is not the only key to his recent success.
A tall man who stands 1.96m, Popyrin possesses an excellent serve and big forehand and is agile for his height. He has decent hands at the net and has worked hard to improve his backhand as well, which is definitely stronger now than when he first came on to the tour.
But the Popyrin camp realised that his return of serve was below-par, which was putting pressure on the rest of his game and the focus on improving that area of his game reaped rich rewards in Montreal.
Simon Rea, a former coach of Nick Kyrgios, noted a massive spike in the number of returns he made in the Canadian Open when speaking to the AO Podcast.
Popyrin had averaged 46 percent of second serve returns over the past 12 months but that jumped to 65 in the decider of the tournament against Rublev.
“It’s been a big, big improvement and it is something that will hopefully keep improving,” he said.
“What I was most proud of (is) the run of six matches was against high-quality opponents. I knew I was capable of beating a top 10 player or two, but for me to do it (all week was) kind of missing in my game, or missing in my tournaments that I was playing.”
Popyrin looking to break Masters drought | 01:16
Shortly after winning the Montreal title, Popyrin’s phone buzzed with a message of congratulations from Hewitt.
While the Popyrin camp has driven his step forward, Hewitt recently played a role in helping reframe the manner with which the Sydney-born Aussie viewed difficult losses.
Popyrin has taken Novak Djokovic, who shapes as a potential third round opponent in New York, to four sets at the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year and was only a few points away from stretching the legend the distance in both matches.
After both losses, he was downcast when expressing his disappointment and it was a similar case in a Rd of 16 clash against 2021 Olympic Gold Medallist Alexander Zverev at the Paris Games, which Popyrin performing well but falling short of victory.
“He gave me some good advice after my match against Zverev at the Olympics,” Popyrin said.
Kyrgios returns in exhibition event | 00:53
“He said, ‘You took it to one of the best players in the world, one of the more in-form players in the world, (and it took him) to play some unbelievable tennis to beat you.’
“I was a break up in that match, so serving for the set and kind of choked it. (But Lleyton) kind of flipped the switch on it and kind of told me a positive overlook on that match, and that gave me the confidence coming into (Montreal). A lot of it is to him.”
Popyrin is among the 12 Australian men featuring in the main draw and plays South Korean Soonwoo Kwon in the first round early on Tuesday morning (AEST).
His best performances to date in New York have been third round appearances in 2019 when, as a teenager, he pushed Matteo Berrettini in a high-class encounter, and 2021, when he posted a win over Dimitrov.
Djokovic, the defending champion, looms as a stumbling block but Popyrin will look forward to the challenge should they meet again.
“I like the courts there. They are bouncy. They are quick. They suit my game,” he said.
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