The men’s portion of the National Bank Tennis Open concluded Monday night with a surprise coronation in the form of Alexei Popyrin, but the tournament has already delivered its share of rather stunning outcomes to the Canadian public in recent decades.
The Australian, who defeated Andrey Rublev in the final, has written his name into the history book of unexpected winners of this annual event. The number of people who bet on the 25-year-old athlete, who was ranked 62nd in the world at the start of the competition, to sweep everything before him can certainly be counted on the fingers of one hand.
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Asked on Tuesday about this result, which will possibly be worth a fortune to anyone who bet on Popyrin, journalist Jessica Lapinski expressed her surprise, but added a few reservations that could further explain the presence of unfamiliar names at the advanced stages of the main draw.
“Some have taken advantage of the fact that Montreal-Toronto is the first Masters on hard courts of the summer season. It’s more open than Indian Wells or Miami where the best in the world are already on the mark when they arrive,” said the representative of the Journal who spied on the actions of the participants for several days at the IGA stadium.
“Then it was a really weird tournament. Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic withdrew, while Daniil Medvedev lost early. The rain often disrupted the flow of matches and, just before, the best players were at the Olympics. It was more difficult to find your way around,” she also stressed.
Other champions emerging from the shadows?
With Roger Federer retired, Rafael Nadal set to join him and Djokovic at 37, the trio’s dominance is over. Tennis fans should expect to see more turnover among the winners of major ATP events, especially with young guns like world No. 1 Jannik Sinner and Alcaraz making their mark, as well as other players in their prime occupying prominent places in the top 10. However, the triumph of a man ranked No. 62 is a special case.
“This is the biggest surprise since Mikael Pernfors in 1993. However, Pernfors had already had good years, when he started on the circuit, in the mid-1980s. He was 30 years old, which was old for the time. Popyrin, however, is still on the rise, indicated Jessica Lapinski. The fact remains that it is so hard to compare. For 15 years, we got used to seeing the same three players win repeatedly, especially in the Masters 1000. Now, are we going to go back to the 1990s, when it was several different faces?”
So, Popyrin’s title is far from guaranteeing him similar successes in the coming weeks. In Cincinnati, where another tournament bringing together the big names in the discipline begins this week, the Australian could well quickly disappear… or shine again.
“Yes, he is a very good guy who has beaten talented opponents, but for a few years now he has been stagnating. Certainly, he will have his best ranking ever [23e]but we won’t necessarily predict his dominance in the future. It’s not like in 2007, when Djokovic won the title in Montreal; he was in the top 15 at the beginning of the year, but he wasn’t first and the best was coming. Four years ago, we also saw a young Andy Roddick, who we saw coming, triumph here,” the journalist said.
“As for Popyrin, he will not be remembered as a guy who made us vibrate.”
CHAMPIONS WE DIDN’T EXPECT IN CANADA
– Mikael Pernfors, Sweden, ranked 95th in the world before the tournament, 1993
– Chris Woodruff, USA, 57th, 1997
– Thomas Johansson, Sweden, 22nd, 1999
– Andrei Pavel, Romania, 43e, 2001
– Guillermo Canas, Argentina, 19th, 2002
– Pablo Carreno Busta, Spain, 23rd, 2022
– Alexei Popyrin, Australia, 62e, 2024
