The country's No.2 player isn't now just the last man standing in the draw but the last man positively thriving as he downed quality Portuguese Nuno Borges 6-4 7-6 (13-11) 7-6 (7-5) in the Court 14 furnace at Roland Garros to reach the last-16 on Friday.Â
Ultimately, he may have perhaps made harder work of it than he should but after a tough three-hour duel, 25th seed Popyrin still hasn't dropped a set yet in the championships.
The second time in the fourth round at a grand slam, Popyrin joins an illustrious list of his compatriots to have made it this far on the Paris clay since the turn of the Millennium alongside Mark Philippoussis (2000), Wayne Arthurs (2001), Lleyton Hewitt (2000-02, 2004, 2006-07) and Alex de Minaur (2024).
The courts hardening and speeding up in the sunshine certainly suited the big serving Popyrin as he produced a strikingly impressive opening behind his powerful delivery, dropping just three points behind it in the opening set -- but from then on it got more complicated.
The Sydneysider seemed in complete control when he broke Borges again in the middle of the second set, his serve still ticking along nicely, but from that point, he found it tough to seal the set.
He had a set point on Borges' serve at 3-5 which was repelled, then twice served for the stanza only to produce his first two really error-prone games. It came down to who could hold their nerve best in a dog-fight of a tiebreak.
Borges earned a couple of set points and Popyrin four more, before finally on the sixth attempt to wrap it up after 72 minutes, he profited from the Portuguese finally crashing a backhand long.
Popyrin's relief was palpable and the pressure cranked up on Borges, who found himself having to save two match points at 4-5 before dragging the match into another tiebreak.
Popyrin powered into a 6-2 lead in the tiebreak only for Borges to doggedly save three more until the No.25 seed finally delivered one more irretrievable serve to prevail in just a minute over three hours.
It sets up an even more difficult date in the fourth round for the 25-year-old against Russian 24th seed Karen Khachanov or American 12th seed Tommy Paul, who were locked in a five-set battle on Court Simonne-Mathieu.
