Delray Beach-Based Opelka Shines In Comeback

Any Florida Tennis fan has heard the name Reilly Opelka before. Maybe not recently---but big-server is not an un-familiar face in the SoFlo tennis landscape. He's the 2020 Delray Beach Open champion, a frequent competitor at the Miami Open, and a resident in one of the state's hottest tennis cities where he trains during the off-season. Florida is known for being a thriving tennis ecosystem, providing state of the art tennis experiences for a beginner all the way to a professional, and Opelka is the face of that. But the reason I say "maybe not recently" is because the American has recently been away from the sport on an indefinite hiatus due to several surgeries most prominently in his hip, only returning to the circuit last summer at the Infosys Hall of Fame Open. After completing a semi-final run at that tournament, Opelka had a tougher time collecting good results over the summer and fall, and played his last tournament in October. It was unclear what the next move was. But he got his spot on the roster in Brisbane, an ATP 250 serving as a warm-up for the Australian Open. Little did anybody know that he would produce some of the best tennis anybody has ever seen. 

This summer, we talked to Opelka about his aspirations for the future. While it was good to see him hitting aces once again, nobody had any idea what the American had in store for the future and if his run in Newport was truly a gateway to his reinstallation in the top 20. The reason for that being that the former #17 has made it clear that tennis is not the only thing that takes up his time. He is fascinated by art and fashion, and has even built up an impressive collection. If you follow him on social media, you know that almost all of his posts from the past few years have not been about tennis at all: they've been about art. He's had plenty to keep him busy during recovery, but people started to wonder if he was going to retire if he wasn't already. But we got some clarity on this. Opelka said: "I definitely want to be top 20 again. Life's better when you're top 20; not even money - I've never really cared about money at all, it's more that you get your own practice court, you get a better hotel room, more preference, a bye. Small little luxuries like that, I really like that aspect of it." 

Photo credit: ATP Tour.

While the 6'11" man who is tied for the tallest tennis player of all time might have a different motivation than most as he doesn't find the paycheck to be his main drive, that doesn't mean he is not ready to be at the top of the tour again. And this statement shows that he is committed to playing tennis fully, so no fan should be worried that this is a mere gig. And even if it was, Opelka would have to seriously consider his future based on the week that he has just had in Brisbane. Having not competed for a few months and barely competed at all for the past few years, this is just about as good as you could get. But there was something even more shocking about the way he played the game especially against the decorated Serbian. Djokovic is known for his superior athleticism, and if he can't win by his impressive shot making, he'll do everything he can to draw out the rallies and exhaust the opponent because he knows he can! It works almost always! In fact, in 2012 the 24-time grand slam champion defeated Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open final in a grueling five set and six hour battle. If that doesn't show you what he is capable of, nothing can.

While Djokovic has aged, it was just half a year ago that he won a gold medal in Paris. He is still able to play at an extremely high level. But Opelka beat him at his own game, firing rocking forehands, drawing out Djokovic from side to side and finding the space to hit a clean winner right past him. By the middle of the second set, Djokovic looked absolutely exhausted by the American's heavy barrage of aces and highlight-worthy points. Even when the Serbian attempted to tire him out, the man who recently had a hip surgery moved incredibly well, showing that height is not a hinder in this case. He played such brutal tennis that Djokovic congratulated him thoroughly at the net and even went to social media to admit that he was "amazed." If Opelka can sustain this level, the sky's the limit for him. 

Editor's Note (update):  After the win against Djokovic in Brisbane, Reilly Opelka came out on top in the semifinals against Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard winning 6-3, 7-6(4). In the final, Opelka was down 1-4 against Jiri Lehecka when he had to retire due to physical issues related to a bout of back pain. 

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Written by Will Turvey. Top photo: ATP Tour.