Despite being overshadowed by other members of the NextGen, Alexei Popyrin completed a solid 2019 season. Between January and December, the Australian climbed 50 spots in the ATP rankings, from No. 147 to No. 97. As per usual, the glass may look half-full or half-empty.<\/p>\n
The Sydney native elected the ambitious route to build up his rank, as opposed to fellow 20-year-old Alejandro Davidovich, who cemented his improvement by shredding the Challenger Tour.<\/a> Popyrin played only four such tournaments in 2019. Instead, he chose to grind it out on the main tour, and he was required to play qualifying draws at a whopping 19 events<\/a>.<\/p>\n While Popyrin led the tour in successful qualifying attempts with 11, he struggled to follow through with main draw wins. Overall, the Aussie obtained 11 main draw victories and 19 losses. However, the match breakdown is as weird as it gets.<\/p>\n In 2019, Popyrin was one of only a select few to win one main draw match at every Major. And he didn\u2019t prey on scrubs, precisely. The world No. 95 defeated the likes of Dominic Thiem, Ugo Humbert, and Pablo Carre\u00f1o.<\/p>\n As a result, 295 out of Popyrin\u2019s 585 points come from Slams. Plus, if you recall his US Open third round match against Metteo Berrettini, he was close to forcing a fifth set. His racket certainly remembers.<\/a> Therefore, the point distribution could have been even more skewed.<\/p>\n Including his three wins at Wimbledon qualifying, Popyrin posted a robust 9-4 record at Slams. The fact he managed <\/em>to amass only five main draw wins across 15 non-Slam events is not only befuddling, but arguably the second biggest tennis mystery of the decade, trailing only Robin Soderling\u2019s retirement-provoking mononucleosis after demolishing David Ferrer 6-2 6-2 at the 2011 Bastad final.<\/p>\n One comparison that comes to mind is Thanasi Kokkinakis\u2019 2015<\/a> campaign. As Ryan Harrison can attest<\/a>, the injury-prone Australian was a qualifying monster in his age-19 season, going 15-2 throughout the year. But Kokkinakis complemented that with a random run at Indian Wells (90 points) or the Bordeaux title (115 points), the lone Challenger he entered all season. Popyrin, on the other hand, only mustered two wins<\/a> across four challenger events in 2019.<\/p>\n Early in 2020, Popyrin\u2019s gamble to play Doha and Adelaide instead of the Bendigo Challengers did not render positive results. The Aussie failed to add ranking points and is now in real danger of crashing out of the Top 100.<\/p>\nHalf of his points hail from Grand Slams<\/h3>\n
Tsonga, first test in Melbourne<\/h2>\n