Fourth seeded Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan faces unseeded Australian Alexei Popyrin in the Final of the 2021 Singapore Open ATP Event. The match is scheduled to be played on Sunday February 28th, 2021 at 4:00am EST. This will be the first meeting between the two players, who will get the win and claim their first title of 2021?
Alexander Bublik is an extremely talented player that has been tipped for big things. However, he has had difficulty putting everything together, often losing focus and throwing matches away. However, he has seemed like a new man so far in 2021, this being his second final of the year after falling at the final hurdle in Antalya in January. He has displayed tremendous focus throughout this week, and apart from losing the first set in a tight Semi-Final win over Radu Albot has hardly put a foot wrong all week. He has served extremely well and limited his unforced errors. When he is motivated he is extremely hard to beat and that seems to be the case here as he enters the Final as the firm favorite against a relatively inexperienced opponent.
Alexei Popyrin is currently ranked #114 and has long been considered a top young talent on the ATP Tour. However, he has largely failed to live up to that huge potential until recently. He has gotten off to a strong start in 2021, highlighted by a Quarter-Final run in Adelaide before stunning David Goffin at the Australian Open. Like Bublik, he has a huge serve and big groundstrokes, with consistency and mental struggles being his downfalls. He has been very impressive here this week, stunning third seed Marin Cilic in the Semi-Final in two tight tiebreakers. He served very well in that match and held his nerve in tense moments to upset the former Grand Slam champion. He is the underdog here but his confidence will be sky-high and he has a big game capable of doing some damage.
While Popyrin has been very impressive this week here in Singapore, I see his run finally coming to an end. Bublik is very hard to predict but he seems to be playing with renewed focus and motivation and I expect him to be too much for the young Aussie to handle. Alexander Bublik to win in straight sets.