Alexei Popyrin

Alexei Popyrin (born 5 August 1999) is an Australian professional tennis player. He has a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 19 achieved on 4 August 2025 and a best doubles ranking of No. 118 reached on 23 February 2026. He is the current No. 2 male singles player from Australia.

Popyrin has won three ATP Tour singles titles, the most significant at the 2024 Canada Open, an ATP 1000-level event. He represents Australia at the Davis Cup.

Early life

Popyrin was born in Sydney, Australia to Russian immigrant parents Alex and Elena Popyrin.

Popyrin began playing tennis at the Kim Warwick Tennis Academy in Hornsby at the age of 4 and was in attendance for the historic 2008 Australian Open third round match between Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis. At the age of 8, Popyrin relocated to Dubai for two years due to his father's work commitments before moving to Alicante, Spain, where fellow Australian Alex de Minaur was his neighbour. Popyrin also spent time training in Nice, Marbella, and Dubai. He has trained at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy since April 2017. His father, Alex, co-founded the Ultimate Tennis Showdown with Patrick Mouratoglou.

Juniors

In 2011, Popyrin won the Australian u12s Grasscourt Championships and, with Chase Ferguson, won the u12s National Claycourt Doubles Championships. In the same year he competed in the Tennis Europe u12 circuit, winning the Stork International 12 & Under in Oetwil Am See (SUI), Torneo U12 – Porto San Giorgio in Porto San Giorgio (ITA), Torneo Citta Di Padova in Padova (ITA). Popyrin lost in the semi-finals at the Eddie Herr International Junior Tennis Championships – IMG / Bollettieri Sports Academy Bradenton, FL (USA), Passagespoirs Le Passage (FRA), as well as the final of the Campionati Internazionali BNL d'Italia U12 – Circolo Canottieri in Roma (ITA).

Popyrin started competing in ITF Junior circuit in 2013 and, in 2017, reached the semi-finals at the 2017 Australian Open in the junior doubles tournament. He then followed that up by winning 22 consecutive matches winning 4 consecutive tournaments : the Mediterranee Avenir – Club Olympic Casablancais Casablanca (MAR), Trofeo Bonfiglio – Tennis Club Milano Milan (ITA), the 2017 French Open junior singles title in May 2017 and his first ITF Professional tournament in Poland F4 Futures Mragowo (POL). While ranked number 2 in the juniors single rankings, Popyrin decided to focus on the professional circuit.

Professional career

2013–2018: Maiden Challenger title, top 150

Popyrin entered his first ITF Futures professional tournament in October 2013 at 14 years of age where he lost a first round qualifying match to Slovakian Martin Beran in Madrid. He secured his first professional qualifying win a year later in another Spanish ITF Futures tournament but failed to qualify for the main draw when he lost in the second round qualifying match. At the beginning of 2016, at the age of 16, Popyrin contested his first ATP Challenger Tour tournament after receiving a wildcard from Tennis Australia to compete in the 2016 Canberra Challenger. He was defeated in the first round by future top 10 player Diego Schwartzman.

In July 2016, he secured his first professional main draw win in an Italian ITF Futures tournament by defeating local talent Tommaso Roggero in straight sets before retiring hurt in the second round. Popyrin continued to play ITF Futures tournaments for the remainder of 2016 and ended the year with a world ranking of No. 1155. He won his first professional ITF title in July 2017 at the Poland F4 in Mragowo, Poland. This victory broke Popyrin into the top 1000 for the first time. He played several more ITF and Challenger tournaments for the remainder of 2017 and ended the year with a ranking of 622.

Popyrin started the 2018 season ranked No. 622, achieving a career-high ranking 25 times over the course of the season peaking at No.147 in November. In January 2018, he qualified for an ATP World Tour tournament for the first time at the Sydney International beating Nicolas Mahut and Federico Delbonis. He lost in round one to John Millman. Later in January, Popyrin made his Grand Slam debut at the 2018 Australian Open after being awarded a wildcard. He lost in round 1 to Tim Smyczek. Popyrin spent the next six months in Europe playing in challenger tournaments, increasing his ranking.

In August 2018, Popyrin qualified for and won his first Challenger title at the Jinan International in China beating James Ward in the final, becoming the third youngest teenager in 2018 to win a professional Challenger title. Popyrin continued to perform well and broke into the world's top 200 in late August. In October, Popyrin qualified for his second ATP World Tour main draw at the Stockholm Open, where he again lost to John Millman in round one. The following week, Popyrin again qualified for a main draw, this time at Swiss Indoors beating Benoit Paire and Mackenzie McDonald. He defeated compatriot Matthew Ebden for his first ATP World Tour win. Popyrin ended 2018 with a singles rank of No. 147.

2019–2020: First major win, top 100 debut

Popyrin commenced 2019 with wildcards into the Brisbane International and Sydney International, losing in the first round in both. He also received a wildcard in the Australian Open, and achieved his first Grand Slam win by defeating Mischa Zverev in straight sets. Popyrin followed this up by beating Dominic Thiem and lost in the third round to Lucas Pouille in closely contested five sets.

During the first half of 2019 Popyrin qualified for the main draws of the ATP 250 tournaments in New York and Estoril, ATP 500 in Acapulco and Masters 1000 in Indian Wells and Monte Carlo. Following his success on the ATP tour, Popyrin was awarded a main draw wildcard into French Open. In the first round Popyrin defeated France's Ugo Humbert in four sets winning his first Roland Garros men's main draw match. He lost to Laslo Djere in the second round. He broke into ATP top 100 for the first time at World No. 99 on 24 June 2019.

In July 2019 Popyrin qualified for the main draw of the 2019 Wimbledon Championships Popyrin lost to Daniil Medvedev in the second round. In the same month, Popyrin received his first direct acceptance into ATP 250 tournament in Atlanta, where he lost in the quarterfinals.

2019 was a breakout year for Popyrin. He played at least second round in all four Grand Slams – 3rd round of Australia Open, 2nd Round of Roland Garros, 2nd Round of Wimbledon and 3rd Round in US Open losing in four closely contested sets to Matteo Berrettini. In 2019 Popyrin qualified for 10 Professional tournaments tying the record set by Mischa Zverev in 2016.

The Australian ended 2019 with an ATP singles rank of world No. 97.

2021: First ATP title

Popyrin received a third wildcard into the main draw of the 2021 Australian Open similar to every year since 2018, with the exception of the 2020 Australian Open where he entered the main draw as direct entry. In the first round he defeated 13 seed David Goffin after saving four match points in 3 hours 43 minutes. He then lost in the second round to Lloyd Harris.

In February, Popyrin entered the Singapore Open and defeated Marin Čilić in the semi-final and Alexander Bublik in the final to win his first ATP title and achieved a career high singles ranking of 82.

At the 2021 French Open, Popyrin lost to Rafael Nadal in the first round.

At the US Open, Popyrin matched his career-best result, progressing through to the third round, which included a win over Grigor Dimitrov, Popyrin's fourth career top-20 win and third achieved in 2021.

Popyrin ended 2021 with an ATP singles ranking of world No. 61.

2022: Second Challenger title, out of top 100

Popyrin started his 2022 season at the Melbourne Summer Set 1. He lost in the second round to Tallon Griekspoor. In Sydney, he was defeated in the first round by Pedro Martínez. At the Australian Open, he lost in the first round to Arthur Rinderknech in five sets.

After the Australian Open, Popyrin competed at the Open Sud de France. He lost in the first round to fifth seed Filip Krajinović. In Rotterdam, he lost in the first round to Karen Khachanov. Seeded seventh at the Open 13 Provence, he was defeated in the first round by qualifier Roman Safiullin. At the Dubai Championships, he fell in the final round of qualifying to Jiří Veselý. However, due to Félix Auger-Aliassime withdrawing from the tournament due to a back injury, Popyrin entered the main draw as a lucky loser. He beat world No. 19, Nikoloz Basilashvili, in the first round. He lost in the second round to qualifier Ričardas Berankis. In March, he played at the BNP Paribas Open. He was defeated in the first round by qualifier Tomáš Macháč. At the Arizona Classic, he lost in the first round to second seed Lorenzo Musetti. In Miami, he was defeated in the second round by 21st seed and world No. 23, Marin Čilić.