Alexander Zverev vs Alexei Popyrin Tips, Prediction & Live Stream - Defending champion Popyrin faces top seed Zverev in quarter-finals

Popyrin returned to Canada down on confidence and without back-to-back hardcourt matches wins for the entire season. However, there's something about Canada that Popyrin loves, because the Aussie has picked up where he left off in Montreal last season, where he captured his maiden Masters 1000 title with a series of stunning performances. Playing in Toronto this year hasn't made a difference, with Popyrin registering huge come-from-behind victories over Daniil Medvedev and Holger Rune to make his way back to the quarter-finals. Next up, top seed Zverev, who is trying to restore his own confidence and rediscover his best tennis.

I wouldn't have gone anywhere near Popyrin in this matchup pre-tournament, but the Aussie's self-belief is back and he's playing some huge tennis again. Zverev meanwhile remains well below his best as he tries to find that balance between being aggressive and reverting to old passive habits of retreating behind the baseline. I think if Popyrin maintains his current level (a big if admittedly), Zverev is there for the taking. I'll back the value with Pop.

Zverev leads 3-0 and 6-0 in sets. Two of those three meetings came all the way back in 2018 (Basel) and 2019 (Acapulco) before the German prevailed 7-5 6-3 in the R16 of the Paris Olympics last year.

Zverev comes into this contest with a 38-14 record on the season, but it's been a relatively poor year by his lofty standards and he will be hoping for some considerable improvement in the coming months.

The German has suffered more heartbreak at the slams, losing the Australian Open final in straight sets to Jannik Sinner before going down in the quarter-finals of Roland Garros against Novak Djokovic and suffering a first round exit at Wimbledon to Arthur Rinderknech.

Taking some time off and linking up with Rafa and Toni Nadal in Mallorca a couple of weeks ago, Zverev (the 2017 Canada Masters champion) is aiming to recapture his passion for the sport and find his best tennis once again.

You can't say he's found it so far in Toronto. Zverev battled his way through a scrappy 7-6 6-4 opening win over Adam Walton (saving set points in the tiebreak) before dropping a set against Matteo Arnaldi in his next outing. Zverev then benefitted from a retirement against Francisco Cerundolo (who he was 0-3 against) in the R16.

Popyrin arrived back in Canada with an extremely poor 12-16 record on the season and without back-to-back hardcourt victories in 2025. An early loss in Toronto would have seen him tumble out of the top 50, but he's played some outstanding tennis to ease the pressure on that rankings drop so far.

There's been some glimpses of brilliance from Popyrin throughout the season - namely a quarter-final showing at the Monte Carlo Masters and a R16 run at Roland Garros - but consistency continues to elude the big-serving Aussie.

However, Popyrin has found his groove again in Canada, taking out wildcard Nicolas Arseneault 7-6 6-3 before coming from a set down in back-to-back matches to knock out former top five players in Daniil Medvedev 5-7 6-4 6-4 and Holger Rune 4-6 6-2 6-3.

Popyrin bounced back from the disappointing of going 0/11 on break points in the opening set against Rune in the R16, dominating the Dane in the second and third sets to return to the quarter-finals.