This player had the summer of his life in 2024, but says his best tennis still lies ahead
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Alexei Popyrin had the summer of his life in 2024.
The Aussie says his best tennis is still ahead of him.
In ‘The Breakthrough’ issue:
🎙️ Exclusive Q&A with Alexei Popyrin
🤝 De Minaur’s show of sportsmanship
⛳ Roger, Rafa take to the fairways
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‘THE BELIEF HAS ALWAYS BEEN THERE’ |
The timing’s different for everyone. When it comes to the so-called ‘breakthrough’, there’s no set schedule, whether you’re Bjorn Borg or Vince Spadea.
For Alexei Popyrin, that breakthrough moment came this time last year at the start of the North American hard-court swing. The 6-foot-5 baseliner with the imposing serve-forehand combo would reel off five straight Top 20 wins (saving three match points against Grigor Dimitrov in the third round) en route to the 2024 ATP Masters 1000 Canada title, the first Australian Masters champion since Lleyton Hewitt more than two decades prior. |
“It definitely is the biggest moment of my career,” said Popyrin, who a few months later would pad that list when he proposed to longtime girlfriend Amy Pederick. (“She’s been through the dips and the bottom of the lows of the lows with me. She really helped me come out of it. She knows that I wouldn’t be here without her.”) |
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The former Roland Garros boys’ singles titlist had dipped his toes in and out of Top 100 waters for years, never quite able to fully submerge himself. Now he was inside the Top 30 in the PIF ATP Rankings. With that boost came a whole lot of confidence, something he carried into the 2024 US Open, where he would score the most high-profile win of his career — a primetime third-round upending of defending champion Novak Djokovic. It clinched his first-ever trip to the Round of 16 at a major.
He has now won 11 of his past 18 matches against Top 10 opponents dating back to November 2021.
Pop, as he’s familiarly known, is truly a global citizen. Born in Sydney, he later moved with his family to Dubai (where he served as a ballkid at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships). He’s lived in Alicante and Marbella in Spain, and trains at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in Southern France. The trilingual competitor had been working with the coaching tandem of Belgium’s Xavier Malisse and South Africa’s Neville Godwin for a little more than two years, but in March shook things up when he replaced Malisse with another South African, former World No. 6 Wayne Ferreira. The Aussie hopes his new-look team will help him eschew the inconsistency, the ups and downs, and lock in toward the top of the rankings. Forgetting about those rankings altogether might just help him do so.
“At the end of the day, you’re focusing on your own game,” he observed, “not thinking about the number in front of your name.” 🎾 — By Richard Osborn |
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ONE-ON-ONE WITH
ALEXEI POPYRIN |
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LAST YEAR WAS AN EMOTIONAL AND PRODUCTIVE ONE FOR YOU: FIRST ATP MASTERS 1000 CROWN IN CANADA, A MASSIVE RANKINGS JUMP, THE UPSET OF NOVAK UNDER THE LIGHTS IN NEW YORK. HOW DID THAT KIND OF SUCCESS CHANGE YOU WHEN IT COMES TO HOW YOU SEE YOURSELF IN THIS SPORT, WHEN IT COMES TO CONFIDENCE?
I don’t think it changed much. I’ve always said, and I keep saying to this day, I have the level to produce a one-off match to beat any top guy. The main goal for me is to just consistently produce that level. I felt like the back end of last year, from the Olympics onward, that was the level I was producing. I felt comfortable out there. I felt like I was playing my best game. I was winning the matches that I was supposed to win, then causing some upsets also. For me, that’s always been the most important thing. I always felt like I had the game to beat the top guys. It was just a matter of consistently putting it in. You go through some doubts here and there. You lose a few matches and doubt yourself a little but, all in all, the belief has always been there. |
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TENNIS IS A SPORT WHERE WE’RE ALWAYS CHASING PERFECTION, KNOWING ALL ALONG THAT IT’S UNATTAINABLE. YET THAT PURSUIT IS WHAT KEEPS US COMING BACK TO THE PRACTICE COURT, THE MATCH COURT, EACH DAY. TALK ABOUT THAT CHALLENGE.
It’s the fun part about tennis, I think, going to the practice courts, doing the blocks of training in the gym, on the court. You’re always trying to find a way to improve. There’s always room for improvement everywhere. That’s what we’re trying to do as a team. But you have to do it smartly. It can’t just be non-stop work all the time. That will burn you out. I’ve had that in the past. I’ve experienced that before. You have to do it at the right times, and you have to do the right amount. Then you just have to trust the process. |
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YOU’RE EIGHT YEARS INTO YOUR PROFESSIONAL CAREER NOW, STILL YOUNG AT 25. BUT TENNIS HAS A FUNNY WAY OF MAKING YOU GROW UP QUICK. DO YOU FEEL LIKE A VETERAN, OR IS THERE STILL MUCH TO DISCOVER ABOUT YOURSELF AS A COMPETITOR?
I don’t feel like a veteran at all. I think that’s the first time anyone’s ever called me a ‘veteran’. It’s nice to hear, actually. ‘Veteran of the Tour.’ [Laughs.] No, I feel like I’m still young. I’ve got so much more to improve. I feel like we’re just constantly searching for ways to improve. My best game is still in front of me. My best results are still in front of me. I really believe that. |
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Teaming up with fellow Aussie Alex de Minaur in doubles at the Mubadala City DC Open, Alexei Popyrin took to the air with Federerian grace when he put away this astonishing running overhead from deep and wide in the court. |
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"To share this moment with my whole family here, it’s the most amazing thing that could have happened to me." |
- 2025 Wimbledon champion Jannik Sinner |
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It’s likely Alex de Minaur’s show of sportsmanship, not the three championship points he saved against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina to capture the Mubadala City DC Open title, that fans will remember most.
After clawing his way to his 10th tour-level trophy in dramatic fashion, erasing a trio of championship points on serve at 5-4 in the final set to win, 5-7, 6-1, 7-6(3), de Minaur went out of his way to comfort Davidovich Fokina, who was understandably distraught.
“You’re way too good to not have one of these. It’s coming, for sure,” said de Minaur during the trophy ceremony. “You deserved it today. I just got lucky. You are a hell of a competitor, a hell of a player. No one on the tour wants to play you. This is not the end, this is only going up for you.”
All class. |
A well-shorn Tommy Paul in wraparound shades turned out to be the favourite when we spoofed the players with our lock-screen photos. (Then again, there was the shot of a shirtless Alex de Minaur: “That’s something you need to look at before you go to sleep every night,” he laughed.) |
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🧠 BRAIN TRUST: We turn the ATP Coach Spotlight on Italy’s Simone Vagnozzi, half of one of the most successful duos in the sport today. Partnering with Darren Cahill, Vagnozzi has helped guide Jannik Sinner to Grand Slam glory and the No. 1 ranking.
🌏 JERRY’S WORLD: Foot surgery and a six-month layoff behind him, China’s Shang Juncheng is again playing without pain and looking forward to his return: “I get my favourite part of the season, which is at home, right after the US Open.”
👋 FOND FAREWELLS: It was a busy month for retirements. The tennis world bid farewell to Italy’s Fabio Fognini, Canada’s Vasek Pospisil and Dutchman Tim van Rijthoven, each of whom has played their final match on the ATP Tour.
✍️ SIGN HERE: Novak Djokovic’s son, Stefan, has become quite the autograph hunter, though his collection is far from complete. “He has everyone’s signature, except mine,” says his father.
❤️ FOR DAD: American Zachary Svajda dedicated his ATP Challenger Tour title in Newport to his father, Tom, who has been battling a stage 4 cancer diagnosis: “This title is for you, Dad. Watching you fight has shown me what true strength really is.”
💪 A TRUE WARRIOR: If his trademark samurai sword celebration isn’t intimidating enough, Rei Sakamoto’s powerful arsenal often does the trick. Meet the 19-year-old #NextGenATP star from Nagoya, Japan, who’s on the verge of cracking the Top 200. |
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Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal shared the spotlight on so many big-stakes occasions, their Lexus ATP Head2Head rivalry, aka Fedal, comprising some 40 matches. That clash continued this month, played out not on a tennis court but on a golf course.
The two were spotted on the fairways at the Pula Golf Resort in Nadal’s native Mallorca. The golf outing capped off Federer’s surprise visit to his onetime nemesis’ namesake tennis academy, part of what fans are dubbing a ‘Big 3 Summer Tour’. Just a week earlier, Federer had been courtside at Wimbledon to watch Novak Djokovic on Centre Court, and back in May, he joined Djokovic and Andy Murray at Roland Garros for a special farewell tribute to Nadal. |
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