Montreal, Canada, 9 August 2024 | Dan Imhoff

Alexei Popyrin will bid to reach his second ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinal after scoring his first top-20 win since April over Ben Shelton in Montreal on Thursday.

Popyrin’s 6-4 7-6(4) win came on the heels of his straight-sets ledger against world No.39 Czech Thomas Machac and set a showdown with seventh seed Grigor Dimitrov, an opponent with whom he has split two meetings.

Victory avenged a defeat to the 11^th-seeded American when they previously met in the third round of last year’s Australian Open. It was Popyrin’s 12^th top-20 win but only his second this year after he beat reigning Monte Carlo Masters champion Andrey Rublev in April.

> READ: Rankings mover Thompson breaks new ground after Washington run

Dimitrov earlier ended any chance of an all-Australian third round clash when he breezed past Rinky Hijikata 6-1 6-0.

Top-30 debutant Jordan Thompson had high hopes of an upset against second seed Alexander Zverev, having beaten him twice in the past year, including en route to his maiden tour title in Los Cabos in February.

The German, however, was sharper from the off and prevented a third straight defeat to the 30-year-old, 6-1 6-1.

> READ: Kokkinakis, Thompson lead Aussies through to second round in Montreal

Lucky loser James Duckworth tested sixth seed Casper Ruud – a player ranked 70 places higher – in his push to reach the third round at the event a second time before the Norwegian advanced 6-2 6-7(5) 6-3.

In his only prior appearance in the Canadian Masters main draw three years ago, Duckworth beat Taylor Fritz and Jannik Sinner back-to-back to reach the round of 16.

The fifth Australian through to the second round, Thanasi Kokkinakis, was due to meet fourth seed Hubert Hurkacz on Thursday night.

In doubles, 12^th seeds Thompson and Max Purcell went down to this year’s Australian Open finalists Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori 6-3 7-6(4) in the second round. Bolelli and Vavassori’s Australian Open conquerors, second seeds Matt Ebden and Rohan Bopanna, fell 4-6 6-3 [10-7] to 14^th seeds Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinksi.