Alexei Popyrin vs Taylor Fritz result: New Aussie star upsets eighth seed at Australian Open

Kieran Francis

Alexei Popyrin vs Taylor Fritz result: New Aussie star upsets eighth seed at Australian Open image

Australia's Alexei Popyrin has achieved the third top 10 win of his career, defeating eighth-seed Taylor Fritz 6-7(4) 7-6(2) 6-4 6-7(6) 6-2 in the second round at the Australian Open.

USA talent Fritz was the much-fancied player against the 113th-ranked Aussie but struggled to assert dominance on Popyrin and the raucous Australian crowd in four hours, two minutes at John Cain Arena.

The 23-year-old has now reached the third round at the Australian Open for a third time (2019, 2020) and will now play another American Ben Shelton to reach the fourth round at a major for the first time.

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In a tight first set with games on serve until the tiebreak, Fritz got the jump on Popyrin in the breaker, jumping out to a 5-1 lead before eventually wrapping it up.

The second set was again serve to the tiebreak, but this time Popyrin got the better of the American, levelling the match at one-apiece.

Finally there was a break of serve, in the third set, as Popyrin snared Fritz's serve in the third game and went on to win it 6-4.

With the pro-Aussie crowd in John Cain Arena spurring Popyrin on, he went down a break late in the set, meaning Fritz would serve for the set at 5-3.

But the Australian broke immediately back before holding his serve to make it 5-5 - with another tiebreak looming.

It did end up in a breaker with Popyrin getting a single match point on Fritz's serve, but the American saved it before winning the tiebreak and taking it to a fifth set.

Popyrin didn't let the missed opportunity deter him, snaring the early break in the fifth to lead 3-1.

The Aussie held serve immediately after to take a 4-1 lead and have a famous victory in his sight.

The next three service games went on serve, with Popyrin getting the opportunity to serve it out at 5-3.

However, the Australian didn't need his service game, breaking Fritz and winning the contest on his second match point.

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Popyrin has beaten top 10 players Dominic Thiem (Australian Open 2019) and Felix Auger-Aliassime (Adelaide International 2022) in his career but after an injury-riddled 2021, the victory over Fritz could set up a big year for the Aussie.

Fritz will be disappointed with a second-round exit in Australia after reaching a career-high quarter-final result in a grand slam at Wimbledon last year.

Kieran Francis

Kieran Francis Photo

Kieran Francis is a senior editor at The Sporting News based in Melbourne, Australia. He started at Sportal.com.au before being a part of the transition to Sporting News in 2015. Just prior to the 2018 World Cup, he was appointed chief editor of Goal.com in Australia. He has now returned to The Sporting News where his passions lay in football, AFL, poker and cricket - when he is not on holiday.