AUSTRALIAN Alexei Popyrin has reached the Top 30 for the first time in his career, after the 25-year-old reached the National Bank Open final following an upset victory over Sebastian Korda overnight. Popyrin has enjoyed an incredible week on the Montreal hardcourts, and that was capped off with a 7-6 6-3 victory over the 18th ranked American.

Coming into the ATP Masters 1000 event, Popyrin was ranked 62nd in the world, but following stunning upset wins over Top 15 players Hubert Hurkacz, Grigor Dimitrov and Ben Shelton, Popyrin has shot up 32 spots and if he can pull off a win in the final, he would further rise to 23rd in the world.

Popyrin is undefeated since turning 25, having celebrated his birthday last Monday. Against Korda, Popyrin won a massive 34 of 41 points off his first serve (83 per cent), while also breaking four times from 11 chances.

Korda was better off his second serve (38 to 34 per cent), but not as consistent off his first (66 per cent), and was only able to generate four break point opportunities, capitalising twice. The American also reached a career-high with his run to the semi-finals, going up three players in the ATP Tour rankings into number 15, making it four consecutive United States representatives from 12th to 15th.

Popyrin’s win should not be understated, having had to beat Hurkacz in a gruelling three-set match, 3-6 7-6 7-5 to come from behind and oust the third seed. Likewise Korda has a similar epic battle, getting the better of second seed Alexander Zverev to throw a curveball in the bottom half of the draw.

The semi-final lasted 92 minutes before Popyrin could finally relax, getting home and reaching the decider to take on Russian fifth seed, Andrey Rublev.

“It means the world… it’s an amazing achievement for myself to be honest, and sometimes you have to pat yourself on the back,” Popyrin said post-match. “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. “

Rublev made the final off the back of a 6-4 6-2 victory against eighth seed Matteo Arnaldi. The Russian had to recompose himself after a one-hour and 40-minute rain delay when up 6-4 1-1, only to come out all guns blazing and reeled off five of the next six games to take the match.

“The wait has been worth it. I’m happy to be in my first Canadian final.” Rublev said. “I just want to recover, rest well and be ready for tomorrow. The idea [of not going to the Olympics] was to be more ready for Canada, so if I’m in the final it means we did really well.”