Popyrin rides blazing tie-break vs. Korda to reach Montreal final

Alexei Popyrin turned near disaster into unexpected triumph to snap Sebastian Korda's eight-match winning streak and charge into his first ATP Masters 1000 final in Montreal Sunday night.

After coming within two points of defeat earlier in the day during a tense three-set quarter-final win over Hubert Hurkacz, the Australian survived a roller-coaster opening set against Korda before rolling over the American to claim a 7-6(0), 6-3 win.

"It means the world... it's an amazing achievement for myself to be honest, and sometimes you have to pat yourself on the back," said Popyrin, who has followed in the footsteps of countryman Alex de Minaur, who reached the final in Toronto last year. "I'll do that tonight but tomorrow it's all hands on deck and back to work."

"It was a topsy-turvy first set with some breaks here and there. I had some points at 5-4 but played some sloppy points and didn't convert. I just stayed mentally strong and I knew exactly what I was going to do on my next break point if I got an opportunity. “

Popyrin, who turned 25 last Monday, won 83 per cent of points on his booming first serve and mercilessly attacked the second serve of Korda, who won just 38 per cent of second-serve points.

In Monday's final Popyrin will play 2024 Madrid champion Andrey Rublev, whom he defeated in the first round of Monte-Carlo at the beginning of the clay season.

Popyrin let slip two set points on Korda's serve at 5-4 in the first set and when he was broken from 40/15 in the following game, the newly minted Washington champion seemed to have all the momentum. But Popyrin immediately broke back to force a tie-break, in which he blanked Korda 7/0.

Popyrin arrived in Montreal for the hard-court Masters 1000 after winning two matches on clay at the Paris Olympics and had spent eight hours, 22 minutes on court this week en route to the semis.

Earlier in the day Popyrin rallied from a set and 1/3 down against Hurkacz, who was two points from a straight-sets quarter-final victory when the players were locked at 5/5 in the second-set tie-break. But the Australian hit 11 aces and won 75 per cent of his first-serve points to tough out a 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-5 win despite converting just three of 20 break point chances.

Popyrin came into the match having not won a set against the Pole in their three Lexus ATP Head2Head meetings.

Having surged 32 places this week in the PIF ATP Live Rankings to a career-high No. 30, Popyrin will rise to No. 23 should he take the title. Monday's final begins at 7:30 p.m. EDT.