Alexei Popyrin landed his fifth win from six matches against top-10 opponents as Alex de Minaur closed on an ATP Finals berth at the Masters 1000 event.
Melbourne, 31 October 2024 | Dan Imhoff
Alexei Popyrin’s giant-slaying ways have claimed his 11th top-10 victim after a narrow 6-4 2-6 7-6(4) victory over world No.5 Daniil Medvedev at the Paris Masters.
The win gave the world No.24 his fifth win from his past six matches against top-10 players on a fruitful run that began in Montreal in August.
It ensured three Australians reached the round of 16 after ninth seed Alex de Minaur kept 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 in the opening set and let slip a 4-1 lead in the deciding set before a point replay down break point at 4-all tested his resolve.
Poppin’ OFF 💥@AlexeiPopyrin99‘s exploits since August:
5 Top-20 wins during maiden masters title run in Montreal ☑️
Upset No.2 Djokovic en route to maiden Grand Slam round of 16 at US Open ☑️
Defeats No.4 Medvedev for second Top-5 win of 2024 🙌#RolexParisMasters pic.twitter.com/P1Fx2vH8Fc— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 30, 2024
He steadied himself to oust the former champion and set a showdown with the in-form Karen Khachanov, the recent Almaty champion.
“Stuff like that, I try and let it fire me, rather than put me down and demotivate me,” Popyrin said. “It definitely fired me up, probably woke me up a little bit, and made me play a little bit more free.
“To get the job done here, at the last Masters of the year where I really wanted to go deep, this is a great step.”
The 25-year-old knocked out three top-10 rivals en route to his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title in Canada before he sprung a US Open boilover against then No.2 Novak Djokovic.
Earlier this month he brought down Grigor Dimitrov in the Shanghai third round.
De Minaur, meanwhile, closed to within 75 points of booking an ATP Finals debut with his second-round win.
The 25-year-old has a chance to surpass Andrey Rublev in the race should he gain revenge over his US Open conqueror, Jack Draper, next.
A quarterfinalist last year, it booked De Minaur’s fifth last 16 showing in Paris in six appearances.
