Will Alexei Popyrin Go Down the Pablo Carreno Busta Way After Being Denied Carlos Alcaraz Matchup in Cincinnati?

Nandini Rikhee | 16/08/2024
Will Alexei Popyrin Go Down the Pablo Carreno Busta Way After Being Denied Carlos Alcaraz Matchup in Cincinnati?

Alexei Popyrin’s campaign at the Cincinnati Open ended sooner than expected. The Australian lost to the French player Gaen Monfils in the first round of the tournament itself, hence, earning a comparison to Pablo Carreno Busta by the fans.

After winning the Montreal Open title earlier this month, hopes were quite high for the Australian player. But the latter’s crumbling in the beginning of the tournament has left the fans wondering if his win in Canada was a mere fluke and he doesn’t have it in himself to extend his success.

With this loss, Popyrin lost his chance to compete against the Spanish young star Carlos Alcaraz and also disappointed those who considered him one of the favorites to win the tournament.

However, one fan also compared the Australian with the Spanish player Pablo Carreno Busta, who faced a similar fate after winning the Montreal Open title in 2022.

Ever since his win in the ATP 1000 tournament in Canada, the Spaniard could not manage to rise to power and is currently ranked 513th in the world.

Are Popyrin and Busta Similar?

Busta lost his prime and didn’t win a single ATP title after his Canada victory. This made people believe that it was just a fluke.

An elbow injury added to Carreno’s difficulties as he was out of action for almost a year and a half due to his fitness issues. Though he made his comeback to the court at Roland Garros this year, he has not been able to achieve much success, facing defeat in the early stages of tournaments – sometimes even in the first round itself.

In Popyrin’s case, he is fit and has shown his talent on more than one occasion in 2024. So the loss in Cincinnati could just be one bad day in the office for the Australian, which any player could suffer on a given day.

Notably, not many players have successfully done well in Montreal and Cincinnati back-to-back in tennis history, perhaps due to being exhausted from a gruelling schedule and competitive matches.

While many fans can believe that Popyrin too might suffer from the same fate as Busta, he has a chance to make amends at the upcoming US Open tournament. He could use this time out to regroup, strategise, rest up and become 100 percent fit for the last Grand Slam of the year.

Should he do well at Flushing Meadows, that would mean that perhaps Popyrin would not go down the Busta way.

Post Edited By: Dhruv Rupani
Alexei Popyrin Cincinnati Open 2024 Pablo Carreno Busta

About the author

Nandini tennis writer

Nandini Rikhee

Nandini Rikhee is a Tennis writer for The SportsRush. Having done her bachelors in Journalism from Lady Shri Ram College for women, Nandini has been working in the field of sports journalism for around 3 years now. During the course of this time, she got the opportunity to cover some major sports events and tournaments like the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games etc. She grew up watching Roger Federer hit his iconic backhand and Rafael Nadal his classic forehand. Being a Tennis enthusiast, working for this sport is a matter of delight for her as it helps her enjoy and love the work.

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