Reilly Opelka

Reilly Opelka
Country (sports)  United States
Residence Palm Coast, Florida, U.S.
Born (1997-08-28) August 28, 1997
St. Joseph, Michigan, U.S.
Height 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m)[1]
Turned pro 2015
Plays Right-handed (two handed-backhand)
Coach Dustin Taylor
Prize money US$380,791
Singles
Career record 6–13 (31.58%)
Career titles 0
Highest ranking No. 125 (19 June 2017)
Current ranking No. 152 (16 July 2018)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open 1R (2017)
French Open Q3 (2017)
Wimbledon Q2 (2018)
US Open Q2 (2015, 2016, 2017)
Doubles
Career record 2–4 (33.33%)
Career titles 0
Highest ranking No. 477 (11 September 2017)
Current ranking No. 376 (19 February 2018)
Grand Slam Doubles results
US Open 2R (2017)
Last updated on: 23 February 2018.

Reilly Opelka (born August 28, 1997 in St. Joseph, Michigan) is an American tennis player. He is the one of the tallest players ever on the ATP Tour at 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m)[1] and can serve in the low-140 mph range. He is a former junior Wimbledon champion.

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 13 years old. He credits Tom Gullikson, who his father knew from playing golf, for much of his early development as a tennis player.[2][3] Opelka is close friends with Taylor Fritz, and was the best man at Fritz's wedding.[4] His uncle is conservative radio personality Mike "Stunt Brain" 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,[3][5] and reached the finals of the Boys' Doubles event (with Akira Santillan) at the 2015 Wimbledon Championships.[6]

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 fellow 200-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 at 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

At the Delray Beach Open, Opelka picked up his first Top 10 win, defeating world No. 8 Jack Sock in the second round.

Tour finals

Singles: 2 (2 titles)

Legend
Grand Slam (0)
ATP Masters Series (0)
ATP Tour (0)
ATP Challenger Tour (2–0)
Result W–L    Date    Tournament Tier Surface Opponent Score
Win 1–0 Nov 2016 Charlottesville, US Challenger Hard (i) Belgium Ruben Bemelmans 6–4, 2–6, 7–6(7–5)
Win 2–0 May 2018 Bordeaux, France Challenger Clay France Grégoire Barrère 6–7(5–7), 6–4, 7–5

Junior Grand Slam finals

Boys' Singles: 1 (1–0)

Outcome Year Championship Surface Opponent Score
Winner 2015 Wimbledon Grass Sweden 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 Japan Akira Santillan India Sumit Nagal
Vietnam Lý Hoàng Nam		 6–7(4–7), 4–6

Wins over top 10 players

Season 2018 Total
Wins 1 1
# Player Rank Event Surface Rd Score Opelka Rank
2018
1. United States Jack Sock 8 Delray Beach, United States Hard 2R 4–6, 7–5, 6–3 228

References

  1. 1 2 Muralidharan, Ashwin. "Profiling Reilly Opelka - The American teen who might be the next 'big' thing' in men's tennis!". sportskeeda. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  2. ↑ "Reilly Opelka may be the next big thing (literally) in US men's tennis". Boston Globe. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  3. 1 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.
  4. ↑ "og Forget a tennis rivalry, these two rising stars are best friends". The Washington Post. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  5. ↑ Camber, Simon (July 12, 2015). "Reilly Opelka's big triumph hints at better days for American tennis". The Guardian. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Sumit Nagal Wins Junior Boys' Doubles Wimbledon Title". NDTV Sports. July 12, 2015. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
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