Dmitry Popko has a pretty good thing going on the ITF World Tennis Tour.

The 27-year-old Kazakhstani has lost just once in his past five tournaments, with his 6-4 6-7(4) 6-3 defeat to Juan Pablo Ficovich on Brazilian soil at M25 Recife on Sunday bringing an end to a 23-match winning streak in ITF competition.

Popko launched his scintillating spell with three consecutive titles on American soil in February, prevailing at M15 Sunrise, M15 Palm Coast and M25 Naples in Florida, before continuing the theme with a run to the final at both M25 Tucuman, Argentina (where the final was ultimately washed out by heavy rain) and M25 Recife in Brazil.

It has been a remarkable patch of form for a player who has now reached the title match at seven of the last eight ITF tournaments he has contested.

It is not just at ITF level that he has delivered either. Popko began the year with both a runner-up finish and a semi-final at back-to-back ATP Challenger tournaments in Buenos Aires, before acquitting himself well in testing encounters with Argentina’s Sebastian Baez and Francisco Cerundolo while in action for Kazakhstan in the Davis Cup Qualifiers in early February.

The world No. 276, who has been as high as No. 162, has rarely paused for breath in ITF competition since. Now, with a 23-1 record at ITF level for the season, he occupies second place on the list for the most ITF match-wins in 2024 behind Romania's Filip Cristian Jianu (27-5).

Jianu, 22, has been in similarly fine form of late. The former junior world No. 5 – who reached the boys’ singles semi-finals at the Australian Open in 2019 – has collected back-to-back titles at M15 Kish Island over the past fortnight, was a champion at M15 Antalya at the turn of the year, and has also reached two further ITF singles finals in 2024.

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