Popyrin finds his feet on clay

He has won 11 of his past 17 matches against top 10 opponents dating back to November 2021.

But as the Australian pointed out, it is not the big names that he has struggled most against, more his consistency against those he is expected to beat.

“I think it's more of a mindset, not concentration kind of mindset, but mindset of being consistent,” Popyrin said following a 6-4, 7-6(11), 7-6(5) victory over Portugal’s Nuno Borges. “That's what I've been talking about all week, I think, the consistency part, the consistency aspect of me playing matches and the way I play these matches is where you can play your best tennis against a top-10 player, but when you play a player ranked 40, 50, 60, you're the favourite, you have to bring that consistent level, the level you play against a top player. That's what I struggled with.

“I think changing the mindset into being a little more consistent, not going for winners at the first opportunity, trying to build a point up, I think that helps. That's kind of the way we've been focusing since the start of the clay. It's been working well.”

For just the second time this year, Popyrin has strung together three successive match wins – the other time was also on clay after he felled Casper Ruud for his first top-10 win of the season to reach the Monte-Carlo Masters quarter-finals.

A junior champion eight years ago on the now-bulldozed Bullring arena here in Paris, he had not won a match at Roland-Garros in six years before this week.

Of greater concern was a 2-7 start to the year before he hit the clay, which came amid the shock of his coach Xavier Malisse ending their partnership at Indian Wells.

It was a circuit-breaker that forced a reset. Former world No.6 Wayne Ferreira was brought on to join fellow South African Neville Godwin as the new coaching tandem and with it came a fresh approach.

“After such a great season in 2024, this was a team I thought I would keep for the rest of my career. It’s not the easiest thing to go through,” Popyrin told Australian Associated Press on the eve of Roland-Garros.

“But two years is a long time for people to spend together, and just sometimes, people lose that motivation and the drive to keep going. I guess that’s what happened there.”

That 2024 season reached its zenith on North American hard courts when Popyrin became just the fourth Australian after Pat Rafter, Mark Philippoussis and Lleyton Hewitt to win an ATP Masters 1000 title with his triumph in Montreal.

He rode that wave to an upset of reigning champion Djokovic at the US Open for his first round of 16 at a major although a subsequent win against Frances Tiafoe was a bridge too far following the highs of the boilover against a 24-time Grand Slam champion.

“I know how I'm going to be feeling in the fourth round of a Slam. Going into the fourth round against 'Foe in the US Open, I had no idea how I was going to feel, especially coming off a match like the third round against Novak,” he said.

“You get the emotional highs, then you top that off with the physical stress. You're never going to be 100 per cent going into a fourth round of a Slam. That's something I can kind of learn from, which we have.

“But then again, the first three rounds have been nowhere near as tough as that Novak match in the third round there. It's actually a positive on my side. I'm feeling quite good, considering the circumstances of it being a fourth round of a Slam. Hopefully I can keep feeling that way.”

Yet to drop a set, this time Popyrin feels better equipped to handle this stage of a major. Twelfth seed Tommy Paul, a fellow former junior champion, stands between him and a first major quarter-final.