Top-Seeded Alexander Zverev Beats Defending Champ Alexei Popyrin To Reach Semifinals In Toronto
The other quarterfinals are Tuesday. Second-seeded Taylor Fritz will take on No. 6 Andrey Rublev of Russia, while No. 4 Ben Shelton is slated to meet No. 9 Alex de Minaur of Australia. Both semifinals go Wednesday ahead of Thursday's title match.
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, including one with an inflatable yellow kangaroo.
Zverev responded by immediately firing a ball completely out of Sobeys 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.
The 28-year-old, who lost to top-ranked Jannik Sinner in the final at this year's Australian Open and made the French Open quarters, improved to 4-0 all-time against Popyrin, including a third-round victory at the Paris Olympics.
Zverev has two tournament wins on clay this year, and is the highest-ranked player competing in a Toronto field lacking some significant star power after Sinner, No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz, No. 5 Jack Draper and No. 6 Novak Djokovic all skipped the hard-court event.
The 25-year-old Popyrin, ranked No. 26, had his nine-match winning streak in Canada snapped.
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