In one of the biggest moments in Australian tennis history, Alexei Popyrin of Sydney, Australia pulled off a monumental upset in the third round of the 2024 United States Open on Friday. Popyrin defeated Novak Djokovic of Serbia 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.
Heading into the matchup, Djokovic’s odds were -699, while Popyrin’s were +450. In a match that lasted three hours and 19 minutes, a major difference came down to double faults. Djokovic had 13 while Popyrin had six.
Djokovic is the fourth top-10 player Popyrin has beaten in 2024. He has also beaten Andrey Rublev in the second round of Monte Carlo 6-4, 6-4, Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria in the third round of the Canadian Open 4-6, 7-6, 6-3, Hubert Hurkacz of Poland in the quarterfinals of the Canadian Open 3-6, 7-6, 7-5, and Rublev again in the final of the Canadian Open 6-2, 6-4.
Next up for Popyrin, the 28th seed, is American Frances Tiafoe, the 20th seed. This will be their first ever meeting.
It has been a fantastic U.S. Open for Australian men. In fact, three Australian men are in the round of 16. There is also an all-Australian matchup as the tenth seed Alex de Minaur of Sydney is facing Jordan Thompson. In the third round, de Minaur defeated Daniel Evans of Great Britain 6-3, 6-7, 6-0. 6-0, and Thompson defeated Matteo Arnaldi of Italy 7-5, 6-2, 7-6.
All-time this will be their sixth meeting. De Minaur has won four of five meetings. De Minaur won 6-4, 6-2 in the second round of Brisbane in 2019, 7-6, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of Sydney in 2019, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 in the round of 16 in Stuttgart in 2021, and 6-2, 6-3 in the second round of Miami in 2022. Thompson’s lone win came in the quarterfinals of s-‘Hertogenbosch in 2019, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.
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