[MONTREAL, QC] August 12, 2024 – Alexei Popyrin of Australia was crowned champion on Monday at the National Bank Open presented by Rogers (NBO), defeating No. 5 seed Andrey Rublev 6-2, 6-2 in the final.
On his way to the final, the unseeded Popyrin defeated world No. 40 Tomas Machac of Czechia in the first round, then caused an upset against seventh-seeded Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria in the second round, winning the match after saving three match points in the second set. He then battled for two hours and 50 minutes to claim a 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-5 victory over No. 4 seed Hubert Hurkacz of Poland in the quarter-finals, before eliminating American Sebastian Korda, champion of the ATP 500 in Washington a week earlier, by a score of 7-6(0), 6-3.
The finalist, Rublev, started his tournament with a first-round bye. In the second round, he defeated
Argentina’s Thomas Martin Etcheverry 7-6(3), 6-2, then American Brandon Nakashima 6-2, 6-2 in the
round of 16. On Saturday, he surprised world No. 1 and defending champion Jannik Sinner of Italy in
three sets (6-3, 1-6, 6-2). Rublev then took out another Italian – 23-year-old Matteo Arnaldi – to punch his
ticket into the championship match.
In the final, it was Popyrin, ranked No. 62 in the world at the start of the tournament, who came out
swinging. He broke Rublev’s very first service game, and then relied on his big serve throughout the first
set, winning 84 per cent of his first-serve points. The second set began like the first, with Popyrin breaking
Rublev right out the gate. In the 10th game of the second set, he clinched the title on his third match-point
opportunity. With the trophy, Popyrin became the fourth Australian male player to capture an ATP
Masters 1000 title, after Patrick Rafter, Mark Philippoussis, and Lleyton Hewitt.
In doubles, Spain’s Marcel Granollers and Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos, the top-ranked team in the ATP
rankings, triumphed 6-2, 7-6(4) over American Rajeev Ram and Britain’s Joe Salisbury. They began their
campaign by eliminating Etcheverry and Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo, before overcoming Italy’s Simone Bolelli
and Andrea Vavassori (No. 5). In the semi-finals, they came out on top (6-2, 2-6, 10-1) against Salvador’s
Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic of Croatia.
As for Ram and Salisbury, they showed Lloyd Glasspool and Nikola Mektic the way out, then Daniil
Medvedev and Roman Safiulin. In the semi-finals, they turned aside five match points before clinching an
11-9 super tie-break win over Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski.
The 2024 NBO in Montreal enjoyed a fantastic turnout, despite some session cancellations due to
weather conditions. A total of 226,839 tennis fans flocked to IGA Stadium, marking the second-highest
attendance in the tournament’s history
