Australian Open: Alexei Popyrin’s star star quality faces crunch test

Alexei Popyrin reaffirmed his standing as one of Australia’s brightest talents with another stirring victory at Melbourne Park.

Alexei Popyrin fires a forehand return at Jaume Munar in their second-round match at the Australian Open. Picture: AAP

Alexei Popyrin reaffirmed his standing as one of Australia’s brightest talents with another stirring victory at Melbourne Park on Thursday. The 20-year-old reached the third round of the Australian Open for the second year in succession, beating Spain’s Jaume Munar 6-2 7-6 (5) 6-2 .

The right-hander, who trains at an academy run by Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Moroutoglou, joins countryman John Millman in the last 32 of the tournament.

Alex Bolt had a good run at joining them in the draw, the 27-year-old South Australian gave No 5 seed Dominic Thiem an almighty scare by taking a 2-1 lead before falling away to lose 6-2 5-7 6-7 (5) 6-1 6-2 in 3hr 22min.

Popyrin does not have an easy task on Saturday. His next opponent is Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, the No 4 seed.

The 23-year-old is the winner of two Masters series titles and reached the final of the US Open last September. He has been in strong form at Melbourne Park with wins over Frances Tiafoe and Pedro Martinez. But the world No 4 is wary of the emerging Australian. Medvedev edged Popyrin, who is the son of Russian immigrants to Australia, in a tight four-set clash at Wimbledon last July.

“I played him in Wimbledon last year and (it) was a really tough match, (an) exhausting one,” Medvedev said.

“(It was) a really close one. I managed to win it, but already (in the) last Australian Open, we saw how he can play in grand slams in front of the home crowd. So if it is gonna be him, it’s not gonna be easy.”

A Davis Cup debutant last February, Popyrin has made sound strides to start his professional career and is now ranked just inside the top 100.

Similarly to Australian No 1 Alex de Minaur, he was born in Sydney before his family moved overseas to allow him to pursue the clear potential he demonstrated as a child.

They lived initially in Dubai, where his father worked, before moving to Spain. For the past couple of years, Popyrin has been based in Nice at an academy that also features Stefanos Tsitsipas.

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The well-travelled Australian managed to win at least a round at all four majors in 2019 and will seek to break into the last 16 for the first time at major level when he plays Medvedev.

While he has a significant task ahead, Popyrin was not far away from beating eventual US Open semi-finalist Matteo Berrettini in New York in the third round last September.

A backhand lob Popyrin made on the run at 5-all in the second set tiebreaker against Munar on Thursday perfectly illustrated his talent. The 20-year-old was under pressure. He had been agitated for five minutes leading up to the point, missing a number of forehand shots and gesturing to his camp in disbelief.

But he settled and fought back from 5-1 down in the tiebreaker to level. And on the critical point, he moved particularly well for his height to the backhand side and, when dealing with a low-skidding shot, was able to perfectly weight a lob that landed on the the baseline.

After putting away the smash that followed, he raised his fist in defiance. A point later he was just a set away from booking a third round appearance.

Bolt, meanwhile, looked to be on the verge of making his exit in regulation fashion when he trailed a set and 5-3 against Thiem, a two-time French Open finalist.

But the Australian had promised to give Thiem “some grief” prior to the clash and duly delivered, surging to win the last four games of the second set and then holding his nerve throughout an intense third set to take a lead.

But Thiem kept asking questions of him on return and Bolt’s resistance finally broke early in the fourth set.