Reilly Opelka

Reilly Opelka (born August 28, 1997) is an American tennis player. At 6 feet 11 inches tall, he is the joint-tallest ATP-ranked player ever, along with Ivo Karlović, and can serve in the low-140 mph range. He is a Junior Wimbledon champion and Redbull ambassador. He has won two ATP singles titles and reached his career-high ranking of No. 31 in October 2019.

Reilly Opelka
Country (sports) United States
ResidencePalm Coast, Florida, U.S.
Born (1997-08-28) August 28, 1997
St. Joseph, Michigan, U.S.
Height6 ft 11 in (2.11 m)
Turned pro2015
PlaysRight-handed (two-handed backhand)
CoachJay Berger
Jean-Yves Aubone
Prize moneyUS$ 1,809,190
Singles
Career record42–41 (50.6% in ATP Tour and Grand Slam main draw matches and in Davis Cup)
Career titles2
Highest rankingNo. 31 (28 October 2019)
Current rankingNo. 39 (16 March 2020)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open2R (2019)
French Open1R (2019)
Wimbledon3R (2019)
US Open2R (2019)
Doubles
Career record10–13 (43.5% in ATP Tour and Grand Slam main draw matches and in Davis Cup)
Career titles0
Highest rankingNo. 141 (2 March 2020)
Current rankingNo. 142 (16 March 2020)
Grand Slam Doubles results
French Open1R (2019)
US Open2R (2017)
Last updated on: as of 22 March 2020.

Personal life

Opelka moved from Michigan to Palm Coast, Florida at age 4. He didn't start playing tennis regularly until he began training through USTA in Boca Raton at 17 years old. He credits Mark Losec, whom his father knew from playing golf, for much of his early development as a tennis player.[1][2] Opelka is close friends with Taylor Fritz and was the best man at Fritz's wedding.[3] His uncle is radio talk show host Mike Opelka.

Junior career

Opelka won the 2015 Junior Wimbledon tournament, defeating World No. 1 Taylor Fritz en route to beating Mikael Ymer in the final[2][4] and reached the finals of the Boys' Doubles event (with Akira Santillan) at the 2015 Wimbledon Championships.[5]

Professional career

Early years

Opelka made his ATP debut at the 2016 U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship, where he lost in the first round to fifth seed Sam Querrey. In August, Opelka won his first three career ATP matches at the BB&T Atlanta Open to reach the semi-finals at just his 3rd career ATP event. This included a victory over 203 cm player No. 27 Kevin Anderson in which he saved two match points on Anderson's serve. He lost in the semi-finals to top seed John Isner. He continued his momentum with first round wins at the Los Cabos Open and the Cincinnati Masters where he defeated Sergiy Stakhovsky and Jérémy Chardy respectively to move into the Top 300 of the ATP rankings. After struggling with a foot injury towards the end of the summer, Opelka returned to the USTA Pro Circuit for the indoor season and won his first ATP Challenger title in Charlottesville to finish the year just outside the Top 200.

In 2017, Opelka got off to a good start to the season by qualifying for the Australian Open. He played No. 11 seed David Goffin in the first round and pushed him to five sets before taking the loss. At the 2017 Memphis Open, he recorded his only ATP Tour level win of the year over fellow Next Gen American Jared Donaldson.

2018: Breakthrough

2018 proved to be a breakthrough year for Opelka. He won three ATP Challenger titles in the year, becoming first American to achieve the feat since Bradley Klahn in 2014.[6] He won his first title of the season at the Bordeaux Challenger in May.[7] In November he won back to back titles at the Knoxville Challenger[8] and the JSM Challenger.[6] He also finished as a runner-up at Cary Challenger and Oracle Challenger.[9]

On the ATP world Tour, he reached the quarterfinals at the Delray Beach Open, picking up his first Top 10 win of his burgeoning career, defeating world No. 8 Jack Sock in the second round over three sets.

His solid performance at the ATP Challenger Tour earned him first career Top 100 year end finish in singles, ending the season at 99.

2019

At the 2019 Australian Open, Opelka created a huge upset when he defeated compatriot John Isner in the first round. This was the second Top 10 win of his career.[10]

On February 17, 2019, Opelka won his first ever ATP title, the New York ATP tournament. Opelka defeated Brayden Schnur in the final 6–1, (7)6–7, 7–6(7). On the way to winning the title, Opelka defeated the following opponents: (1R) Adrian Mannarino 2–6, 7–6(5), 6–4, (R16) Denis Istomin (8)6–7, 7–6(6), 1–0, (QF) Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6–3, 6–4, (SF) John Isner (top seed) (8)6–7, 7–6(14), 7–6(4). This was the second time that Opelka beat Isner in as many months to reach the final.[11]

ATP career finals

Singles: 2 (2 titles)
Legend
Grand Slam tournaments (0–0)
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
ATP World Tour 500 Series (0–0)
ATP World Tour 250 Series (2–0)
Titles by surface
Hard (2–0)
Clay (0–0)
Grass (0–0)
Titles by setting
Outdoor (1–0)
Indoor (1–0)
Result W–L    Date    Tournament Tier Surface Opponent Score
Win 1–0 Feb 2019 New York Open, United States 250 Series Hard (i) Brayden Schnur 6–1, 6–7(7–9), 7–6(9–7)
Win 2–0 Feb 2020 Delray Beach Open, USA 250 Series Hard Yoshihito Nishioka 7–5, 6–7(4–7), 6–2

Doubles: 2 (2 runner-ups)
Legend
Grand Slam tournaments (0–0)
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
ATP World Tour 500 Series (0–1)
ATP World Tour 250 Series (0–1)
Finals by surface
Hard (0–2)
Clay (0–0)
Grass (0–0)
Finals by setting
Outdoor (0–0)
Indoor (0–2)
Result W–L    Date    Tournament Tier Surface Partner Opponents Score
Loss 0–1 Oct 2019 Swiss Indoors, Switzerland 500 Series Hard (i) Taylor Fritz Jean-Julien Rojer
Horia Tecău		 5–7, 3–6
Loss 0–2 Feb 2020 New York Open, United States 250 Series Hard (i) Steve Johnson Dominic Inglot
Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi		 6–7(5–7), 6–7(6–8)

Tour finals

Singles: 4–2 (4 titles, 2 runner-up)
Legend
Grand Slam (0)
ATP Masters Series (0)
ATP Tour (0)
ATP Challenger Tour (4–2)
Result W–L    Date    Tournament Tier Surface Opponent Score
Win 1–0 Nov 2016 Charlottesville, US Challenger Hard (i) Ruben Bemelmans 6–4, 2–6, 7–6(7–5)
Win 2–0 May 2018 Bordeaux, France Challenger Clay Grégoire Barrère 6–7(5–7), 6–4, 7–5
Loss 2–1 Sep 2018 Chicago, US Challenger Hard Denis Istomin 2–6, 4–6
Loss 2–2 Sep 2018 Cary, US Challenger Hard James Duckworth 6–7(4–7), 3–6
Win 3–2 Nov 2018 Knoxville Challenger, US Challenger Hard (i) Bjorn Fratangelo 7–5, 4–6, 7–6(7–2)
Win 4–2 Nov 2018 Champaign Challenger, US Challenger Hard (i) Ryan Shane 7–6(8–6), 6–3

Junior Grand Slam finals

Boys' Singles: 1 (1–0)
Outcome Year Championship Surface Opponent Score
Winner 2015 Wimbledon Grass Mikael Ymer 7–6(7–5), 6–4

Boys' Doubles: 1 (0–1)
Outcome Year Championship Surface Partner Opponents Score
Runner-up 2015 Wimbledon Grass Akira Santillan Sumit Nagal
Lý Hoàng Nam		 6–7(4–7), 4–6

Performance timelines
Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# A P Z# PO G F-S SF-B NMS NH
(W) Won; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (A) absent; (P) postponed; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (F-S) silver or (SF-B) bronze Olympic medal; a (NMS) downgraded Masters Series/1000 tournament; (NH) not held. SR=strike rate (events won/competed)
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.

Singles

Current through the 2019 Swiss Indoors.

Tournament20152016201720182019SRW–L
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open A A 1R Q1 2R 0 / 2 1–2
French Open A A Q3 Q2 1R 0 / 1 0–1
Wimbledon A A Q1 Q2 3R 0 / 1 2–1
US Open Q2 Q2 Q2 Q1 2R 0 / 1 1–1
Win–Loss 0–0 0–0 0–1 0–0 4–4 0 / 5 4–5
ATP Tour Masters 1000
Indian Wells Masters A A 1R 1R 1R 0 / 3 0–3
Miami Open A A Q2 Q1 3R 0 / 1 2–1
Monte-Carlo Masters A A A A A 0 / 0 0–0
Madrid Open A A A A 2R 0 / 1 1–1
Italian Open A A A A Q2 0 / 0 0–0
Canadian Open A A 1R A A 0 / 1 0–1
Cincinnati Masters A 2R Q1 A 2R 0 / 2 2–2
Shanghai Masters A A A A 2R 0 / 1 1–1
Paris Masters A A A A A 0 / 0 0–0
Win–Loss 0–0 1–1 0–2 0–1 5–5 0 / 9 6–9
National representation
Davis Cup A A A A 0 / 0 0–0
Career statistics
20152016201720182019Career
Tournaments 0 5 8 2 22 37
Titles / Finals 0 / 0 0 / 0 0 / 0 0 / 0 1 / 1 1 / 1
Overall Win–Loss 0–0 5–5 1–8 2–2 27–21 35–36
Win %  –  50% 11% 50% 56% 49%
Year-end Ranking 981 204 229 99

Record against top 10 players

Opelka's match record against players who have been ranked in the top 10. Only ATP Tour main draw and Davis Cup matches are considered.

* As of 28 October 2019.

Top 10 wins
  • Opelka has a 4–4 (50.0%) record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.
Season 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Total
Wins 0 0 0 1 3 4
# Player Rank Event Surface Rd Score RO Rank
2018
1. Jack Sock 8 Delray Beach, United States Hard 2R 4–6, 7–5, 6–3 228
2019
2. John Isner 10 Australian Open, Australia Hard 1R 7–6(7–4), 7–6(8–6), 6–7(4–7), 7–6(7–5) 97
3. John Isner 9 New York Open, United States Hard (i) SF 6–7(8–10), 7–6(16–14), 7–6(7–4) 89
4. Roberto Bautista Agut 10 Swiss Indoors, Switzerland Hard (i) QF 6–3, 3–6, 6–3 37
gollark: Maybe gusties are... alti-something?
gollark: But yay, pygmies! And cool eggos.
gollark: ~~remove sickness already seriously~~
gollark: That raises the question of how they get the scroll names, but whatever.
gollark: .

References
  1. "Reilly Opelka may be the next big thing (literally) in US men's tennis". Boston Globe. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  2. Boyle, Chris (July 10, 2015). "Palm Coast's Reilly Opelka defeats world's No. 1 junior, reaches Wimbledon final". The Daytona Beach News-Journal. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
  3. "og Forget a tennis rivalry, these two rising stars are soon to be wedded". The Washington Post. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  4. Camber, Simon (July 12, 2015). "Reilly Opelka's big triumph hints at better days for American tennis". The Guardian. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
  5. "Sumit Nagal Wins Junior Boys' Doubles Wimbledon Title". NDTV Sports. July 12, 2015. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
  6. "Opelka With Back-To-Back Titles Win In Champaign". Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  7. "AMERICAN REILLY OPELKA STANDS TALL GOING INTO THE 2019 SEASON". tennis.com. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  8. "USTA Pro Circuit Wrap-Up: Florida's Opelka Wins Knoxville, Mejia in Niceville". Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  9. "THE NEXT WAVE OF AMERICAN MEN STILL WORKING ON BREAKTHROUGHS". tennis.com. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  10. Streeter, Kurt (14 January 2019). "Against John Isner, Reilly Opelka Stands Taller". Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  11. "2019 New York Open - Men's Singles Draw" (PDF). February 17, 2019.
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