Montreal (AFP) – Former Olympic champion Alexander Zverev missed a chance to collect his 50th victory of the season as the second seed lost an ATP Montreal Masters quarter-final on Sunday to American Sebastian Korda. Korda, who won the Washington title last weekend, posted a 7-6 (7/5), 1-6, 6-4 victory over the German and claimed his career-high eighth consecutive match triumph.
With the tournament behind schedule due to rain, two quarter-finals and the semifinals were being contested to reach Monday’s final at the pre-US Open hardcourt outing. Early evening rain did not help matters, delaying play by two hours. When the first of the two semis got underway in late afternoon, Andrey Rublev defeated Italian Matteo Arnaldi 6-4, 6-2 in a contest paused for two hours due to wet weather after the first set. The fifth seed will be playing his sixth final at the Masters level. He came out after the interruption and produced a double break after less than 30 minutes to reach the final.
“It was worth it, all this week was worth it,” Rublev said of the rain delays which have plagued the event. “I’m happy to be in my first Canadian final. Now I just want to recover, rest and be ready for tomorrow.”
Two rain-delayed quarter-finals from Saturday were finally staged in the afternoon, with the winners — Korda and Alexei Popyrin of Australia — facing off in a later semi-final. Korda and Popyrin slogged through long, energy-sapping wins, with Korda accounting for Zverev, the 2017 champion in Canada. The second seed and Tokyo Olympic winner became the day’s biggest victim, unable to hold a first-set break of serve. Zverev dropped serve at four-all in the deciding set against Korda.
Popyrin accounted for a second consecutive seed with his 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-5 fightback win against one of the game’s biggest servers, Hubert Hurkacz. Popyrin had saved three match points in the third round in beating 10th seed Grigor Dimitrov before dispatching Hurkacz. “I’m really happy but a little bit tired,” Popyrin said after winning with 11 aces.
Korda beat Popyrin in their only previous ATP meeting at Kazakhstan two years ago. Korda’s victory over Zverev after more than two hours was only his second against a top-five opponent. “This means a lot to me. It has been a tough year,” Korda said. “I’ve put in a lot of work so I’m happy with the results. I’m having fun on the court and trying to play aggressive tennis.”
The son of a former ATP champion from the 1990s has advanced with minimal play. His first-round opponent retired and he got a walkover in the third round when Casper Ruud fell ill. Poland’s Hurkacz was playing this week less than a month after July knee surgery, with doctors telling him his season was over. A late break for Popyrin paved the way for the upset.
© 2024 AFP
