“Why not me?” Confident Popyrin not surprised by upset of Djokovic

Alexei Popyrin’s 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 victory over Novak Djokovic in the U.S. Open third round on Friday was one of the most shocking results of 2024 to date.

Don’t count Popyrin among those who were surprised.

For a whole host of reasons, the Australian went into that third-round match with plenty confidence. It goes back to two other major encounters with Djokovic from earlier this season. Popyrin won a set each at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, even pushing their All-England Club showdown to a fourth-set tiebreaker.

“I think in my past I have always had the one-off result of beating a top player,” the 25-year-old commented. “I think the last two matches against Novak really gave me the confidence to come out here today and win. It’s something that I believed that I have the game to be able to beat these top players. For me to be able to do it and back it up is a big thing for me.”

Popyrin is also backing up the best tournament of his professional life, which came in the form of a almost hard-to-believe Masters 1000 title earlier this month He knocked three top-10 opponents en route to the trophy and five in the top 18.

It was a result he ranks even higher than his upset of Djokovic.

“For me, winning Montreal was way bigger than today,” Popyrin explained. “Just because it’s a title–and it’s a Masters 1000 title. That felt unbelievable. [Beating Djokovic] was something that I kind of thought I could do, you know? Winning a Masters 1000 was not something that kind of crossed my head.

“It’s given me a lot of confidence. I said earlier this week that for me the most important part was to take that confidence from Montreal and bring it into this week, but not only this week but hopefully for years to come. All these top-10 players, top-5 players, they play on this confidence all the time, and they steadily build on it.”

So far in New York, though, it’s lower-ranked players who have been making headlines. In addition to Popyrin’s defeat of Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz was stunned by Botic van de Zandschulp–the world No. 74–on Thursday. Hubert Hurkacz, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Holger Rune have also been ousted, winning a combined one match between them.

Alcaraz’s unfathomable loss was a result that did not go unnoticed by Popyrin.

“I was asleep at 10:30, so I actually didn’t see any of the match,” the 25-year-old said. “Yeah, I woke up and showed my girlfriend straightaway in shock. It was crazy.

“Results like that happen. I thought to myself, ‘why not me?'”

The very next night, it was him.

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.