Alexei Popyrin's Canadian Open defence ends in quarterfinal loss to Alexander Zverev
Popyrin, who became the first Australian to win an ATP Masters 1000 tournament at last year's event, took the opening set before Zverev rallied.
The German, who lost to top-ranked Jannik Sinner in the final at this year's Australian Open and made the French Open quarterfinal, not only overcame Popyrin but also a heckling fan late in the contest.
After Zverev hit the winning point, he turned to the heckler and waved, saying "bye-bye", before meeting Popyrin at the net to shake his hand.
Popyrin took the first set when his gentle backhand volley after a long rally grazed the top of the net and dropped for the winning point — much to the delight of his fans.
Zverev responded by immediately firing a ball completely out of the stadium in frustration, but quickly regrouped to go up 2-0 in the second set.
Popyrin grabbed a break of his own before holding serve at 4-4. Zverev, who won the Canadian title in Montreal eight years ago when he defeated childhood idol Roger Federer, took a 5-4 lead and then again broke his opponent to even the match.
Ousted at the quarterfinal stage of last year's tournament, Zverev got another break to go up 2-0 in the third set before serving out the match.
Zverev has two tournament wins on clay this year, and is the highest-ranked player competing in the Toronto field.
The German, the 2017 tournament champion, will face either 11th seed Karen Khachanov of Russia or 26th seed Alex Michelsen of the United States.
Australia's number-one-ranked male player, Alex de Minaur, will face American Ben Shelton tomorrow morning, AEST, in his quarterfinal.
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Alexei Popyrin won the first set but that was as good as it got in his quarter-final showdown with Alexander Zverev as his quest for back-to-back Canadian Open titles ended. It took 70 minutes for the defending champ to take the opening set over the No.1 seed, which he did winning a tiebreak 10-8. But stung into action, the German world No.3 raced out to a 3-0 lead in the second set and Popyrin never recovered, eventually going down 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 in Toronto. It ended the Australia's run of nine consecutive wins in Toronto, having stormed to the title in 2024, and Popyrin remains winless in four matches against Zverev. Popyrin's run has, however, pushed him inside the top 20 on the ATP live rankings ahead of the US Open. For Zverev, it was his 40th win of the year.i 'After losing the first set, I had to tell myself we were both playing well,' the holder of seven Masters trophies said. 'I had one or two mistakes at the end of the first, but it was a high-level match. 'I felt that if I kept playing well, I would get my chances -- and I did. I can't complain about the second and third sets.' Popyrin and Zverev duelled throughout the evenly matched 71-minute opening set as it went into a tiebreaker. Popyrin had already taken out grand slam winner Daniil Medvedev in the third round and his exit leaves Alex de Minaur as the remaining hope in the event with the world no.7 set to take on Ben Shelton in his own quarter-final showdown.
