Alexei Pofyrin kicked his title defense in the high gear in the National Bank Open on Thursday evening by Rogers, with a 10th seed Daniil Medvedev 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 in a battle of former champions at the Canadian ATP Masters 1000.
Pofyrin, who won his Masters 1000 title last year in his tournament Main-Draw debut in Montreal, is now until the last 16 in Toronto. By beating and improving the 2021 champion Daniil Medvedev to 2-4 in their Lexus ATP Head2head series, Popyrin earned his fourth top 20 victory of the season, with the previous three on the way to the quarterfinals at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.
A perfect 8-0 in Canada, Popyrin sealed the victory just before 1 o’clock to book a Saturday with Fifth Seed Holger Rune.
Pofyrin led Medvedev through an early break in all three sets and broke in the opening match of sets two and three. After he dropped to give up the first set, he saved all six breaking points with which he was confronted for the rest of the two -hour match of 30 minutes. The Aussie saved nine out of 11 breaking points in general, while Medvedev saved nine out of 12, according to Infosys ATP statistics.
After rising in June in June to a career-high PIF ATP ranking of No. 21 After reaching the fourth Tour of Roland Garros, Popyrin Toronto arrived at World No. 26.
More to follow …
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