Alexei Popyrin wins French Open title

Sydney teen Alexei Popyrin snaps 49-year title drought for an Australian boys' singles champion at Roland Garros.

Paris, France, 10 June 2017 | Leigh Rogers

Alexei Popyrin is the French Open 2017 boys’ singles champion.

The 17-year-old Sydney talent ended a 49-year title drought for Australians in Paris, recording a 7-6(5) 6-3 win over Spain’s Nicola Kuhn in the final.

After a tight first set, Popyrin took charge early in the second to secure a double break and race to a 4-1 advantage.

Kuhn, the 11th seed, got one break back but Popyrin steadied to break again in the ninth game and secure victory in 81 minutes.

It is a third consecutive junior singles title for Popyrin on clay, having scooped titles in Morocco and Italy in the lead-up to the French Open.

The 196-centimetre world No.3-ranked junior has now won his past 17 singles matches, and boasts a 23-3 season win-loss record.

Popyrin becomes the first Australian to win the French Open junior boys’ singles title since Phil Dent in 1968, and the fourth overall alongside Dent, Ken Rosewall in 1952 and John Newcombe, who won back-to-back titles in 1961-62.

It was Popyrin’s seventh junior Grand Slam singles appearance, with his previous best result a third round run at Roland Garros last year.

Casey Dellacqua and Ashleigh Barty have a chance to join Popyrin as a 2017 French Open champion when they contest the women’s doubles final on Sunday.

The pair, who have just become the first all-Australian duo to reach the women’s doubles final at all four Grand Slams in nearly half a century, face top seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova in tomorrow’s decider.

¾ F I N A L S ¾#RG17 #ABCD #sweatyhugs #bff pic.twitter.com/iLl4K2ODoH

— Ash Barty (@ashbar96) June 9, 2017

The last all-Australian pair to win the French Open women’s doubles title was Margaret Court and Judy Tegart in 1966.