Alexei Popyrin crashes out of French Open after fourth-round loss to Tommy Paul

Alexei Popyrin’s golden run at the French Open has come to a shuddering halt, ending Australia’s involvement in the men’s singles with a week still to go in the second grand slam of the year.

Alexei Popyrin’s golden run at the French Open has come to a shuddering halt, ending Australia’s involvement in the men’s singles with a week still to go in the second grand slam of the year.

Australia’s No. 2 had already exceeded expectations on the slow red clay of Roland Garros by reaching the fourth-round clash but his hopes of making the quarter-finals came unstuck against the energetic Tommy Paul.

The American really should have been close to exhaustion after surviving two marathon five-setters just to get to the last 16 but is one of the fittest players in professional tennis and had plenty left in the tank to see off Popyrin 6-3 6-3 6-3 on Sunday night.

Alexei Popyrin made the fourth round of the French Open for the first time.

The Australian did have his chances, breaking Paul’s opening service game and creating another nine break points during the contest but he was unable to capitalise on any on the Suzanne Lenglen court while Paul was ruthless whenever the door opened, breaking serve five times.

There’s no shame in that for the towering Popyrin, who went into the match as the clear underdog against a very good opponent even though he had won his first three matches in straight sets so was physically fresher.

The underrated Paul also won the French Open junior title and was a semi-finalist at Australian Open two years ago and won a bronze medal in doubles at last year’s Paris Olympics.

Although Popyrin won the French Open junior crown in 2017, he hasn’t had much success on the shifting surface since moving into the senior ranks, winning just one match at Roland Garros in his six previous visits before this year.

Still just 25, the lanky Popyrin is starting to make his presence felt in the bigger events however and his best may be yet to come.

Popyrin came unstuck against Tommy Paul in the fourth round at Roland Garros.

He won the Canadian Open, a Masters level tournament, last year before beating Novak Djokovic at the US Open to make the fourth round of a major for the first time.

Ranked 25 in the world going into the French Open, he is forecast to rise four places to a career high 21 after getting to the fourth round in Paris and can look ahead to Wimbledon with renewed belief.

Although Australia is out of the running in the men’s singles, Daria Kasatkina is still flying the flag in the women’s draw with the Russian-born due to play Mirra Andreeva on Monday.

Originally published as Alexei Popyrin crashes out of French Open after fourth-round loss to Tommy Paul