In a breakthrough week, Olympian Alexei Popyrin will bid to become the first Australian man in 21 years to win a Masters Series tournament when he faces Andrey Rublev in the final of the Canadian Open.

The former Roland Garros boys champion continued his strong form in Montreal by clinching two wins on Sunday to set up what will be the biggest match of his career early Tuesday AEST.

The 25-year-old hit the ground running in Quebec after reaching the last 16 at the Olympics and has notched victories over two top-10 ranked rivals on route to the final of the prestigious event.

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At a tournament that has been marred by delays courtesy of the backwash from Hurricane Debby, which struck the United States last week, Popyrin has shown admirable resilience in what is the best week of his career.

After defeating world No.6 Hubert Hurkacz 3-6 7-6 (5) 7-5 on Sunday morning, Popyrin returned to the court to topple Seb Korda, who won in Washington last week, 7-6 (0) 6-3 in his second match for the day.

“It means the world. When you (say I’m a Masters finalist), it is an amazing feeling,” Popyrin said.

“Sometimes you have to pat yourself on the back and I think I will do that tonight, but tomorrow it is all hands on deck and back to work.

“In the second set, I kind of felt like I had to give it my all, because if it went into a third set, I don’t know if my legs would have made it.”

Popyrin has moved to a career-high ranking of 30, based on a live estimate, and could jump to the cusp of the top 20 if he is to defeat Rublev, who has regained his best form recently.

While Olympic finalists Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz skipped Montreal, the Montreal Masters still featured seven of the world’s top 10 and 15 of the top 20-ranked players.

Popyrin will pocket at least $871,000 regardless of how he fares against Rublev and almost $1.6 million if he is able to beat the world No.8 for the second time in succession after a win over the Russian star in April.

As it stands, Australia could have three men seeded at the US Open, with Alex de Minaur ranked No.10 and Jordan Thompson currently sitting at 32 on a live basis.

De Minaur, who was a finalist in Montreal last year, will not play in Cincinnati either due to the hip injury he sustained at Wimbledon.

But Thompson has the chance to further his claims of being seeded in a major for the first time in Cincinnati and will play French 13th seed Ugo Humbert in the opening round.

Popyrin, meanwhile, is starting to deliver on the promise he displayed as a teenager as he seeks to end a drought at Masters level for Australians dating back to Lleyton Hewitt’s successful defence of the Indian Wells title in 2003.

Nick Kyrgios reached the final of the Cincinnati Masters in 2017 when beaten by Grigor Dimitrov, who Popyrin saved match points against earlier this week, while de Minaur was beaten by Italian star Jannik Sinner in Toronto last year.

It was a start of a surge for Sinner, who won the Australian Open on route to the world No.1 ranking, and for de Minaur, who lost a high-quality 4th Rd to Rublev at Melbourne Park and reached back-to-back quarterfinals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon.

Popyrin has been less consistent than de Minaur, a boyhood friend who he partnered at the Olympics, but has always shown promise.

A winner of an ATP Tour title in Umag last year, he cut a desolate figure after losing to compatriot Thanasi Kokkinakis in a thrilling five set match at Roland Garros in May as he lamented another lost opportunity on a big stage.

After good success in grand slams in the infancy of his career, Popyrin said at Wimbledon he was trying to follow the example of de Minaur, who peaked at No.6 prior to his injury, and take another step forward in his career.

He performed well at Wimbledon when pushing Novak Djokovic to a fourth set tiebreaker in the third round and then defeated Stan Wawrinka in the Olympics on the way to the last 16.

After arriving in Canada, he trained with Rublev for two hours and proceeded to beat world No.14 Ben Shelton, No.10 Grigor Dimitrov, Hurkacz and the 18th ranked Korda.

Rublev, whose tantrums have drawn more focus than his tennis recently, defeated the Davis Cup star in straight sets in an indoor hard court in Vienna last year.

But Popyrin was too good when they played in the Monte Carlo Masters, an event where the Russian is a former winner, in April this year when successful 6-4 6-4.

“It is going to be very different. I have lost to him on hard court, so I know he is a different player on it, even though he has won a Masters event on clay in Monte Carlo,” Popyrin said.

“He plays a tough game on hard courts. It is really fast and he takes it really early. We had a really solid practice for two hours earlier in the week, so I will take some tips from there and we will see what happens.”