Alexei Popyrin takes down Ben Shelton on the Canadian Masters as Jordan Thompson, Rinky Hijikata and James Duckworth come up brief.
Montreal, Canada, 9 August 2024 | Dan Imhoff
Alexei Popyrin will bid to succeed in his second ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinal after scoring his first top-20 win since April over Ben Shelton in Montreal on Thursday.
Popyrin’s 6-4 7-6(4) win got here on the heels of his straight-sets ledger towards world No.39 Czech Thomas Machac and set a showdown with seventh seed Grigor Dimitrov, an opponent with whom he has cut up two conferences.
Victory avenged a defeat to the 11th-seeded American once they beforehand met within the third spherical of final 12 months’s Australian Open. It was Popyrin’s 12th top-20 win however solely his second this 12 months after he beat reigning Monte Carlo Masters champion Andrey Rublev in April.
> READ: Rankings mover Thompson breaks new floor after Washington run
Dimitrov earlier ended any probability of an all-Australian third spherical conflict when he breezed previous Rinky Hijikata 6-1 6-0.
High-30 debutant Jordan Thompson had excessive hopes of an upset towards second seed Alexander Zverev, having crushed him twice prior to now 12 months, together with en path to his maiden tour title in Los Cabos in February.
The German, nonetheless, was sharper from the off and prevented a 3rd straight defeat to the 30-year-old, 6-1 6-1.
> READ: Kokkinakis, Thompson lead Aussies by way of to second spherical in Montreal
Fortunate loser James Duckworth examined sixth seed Casper Ruud – a participant ranked 70 locations larger – in his push to succeed in the third spherical on the occasion a second time earlier than the Norwegian superior 6-2 6-7(5) 6-3.
In his solely prior look within the Canadian Masters foremost draw three years in the past, Duckworth beat Taylor Fritz and Jannik Sinner back-to-back to succeed in the spherical of 16.
The fifth Australian by way of to the second spherical, Thanasi Kokkinakis, was resulting from meet fourth seed Hubert Hurkacz on Thursday night time.
In doubles, 12th seeds Thompson and Max Purcell went right down to this 12 months’s Australian Open finalists Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori 6-3 7-6(4) within the second spherical. Bolelli and Vavassori’s Australian Open conquerors, second seeds Matt Ebden and Rohan Bopanna, fell 4-6 6-3 [10-7] to 14th seeds Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinksi.
