Reilly Opelka


Reilly Opelka 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.

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. Opelka is close friends with Taylor Fritz and was the best man at Fritz's wedding. 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 and reached the finals of the Boys' Doubles event at the 2015 Wimbledon Championships.

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. He won his first title of the season at the Bordeaux Challenger in May. In November he won back to back titles at the Knoxville Challenger and the JSM Challenger. He also finished as a runner-up at Cary Challenger and Oracle Challenger.
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.

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, 6–7, 7–6. On the way to winning the title, Opelka defeated the following opponents: Adrian Mannarino 2–6, 7–6, 6–4, Denis Istomin 6–7, 7–6, 1–0, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6–3, 6–4, John Isner 6–7, 7–6, 7–6. This was the second time that Opelka beat Isner in as many months to reach the final.

ATP career finals

Singles: 2 (2 titles)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScore
Win1–02019 New York Open – Singles|New York Open, United States250 SeriesHard Brayden Schnur6–1, 6–7, 7–6
Win2–02020 Delray Beach Open – Singles|Delray Beach Open, USA250 SeriesHard Yoshihito Nishioka7–5, 6–7, 6–2

Doubles: 2 (2 runner-ups)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore
Loss0–12019 Swiss Indoors – Doubles|Swiss Indoors, Switzerland500 SeriesHard Taylor Fritz Jean-Julien Rojer
Horia Tecău		5–7, 3–6
Loss0–22020 New York Open – Doubles|New York Open, United States250 SeriesHard Steve Johnson Dominic Inglot
Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi		6–7, 6–7

Tour finals

Singles: 4–2 (4 titles, 2 runner-up)

Legend
Grand Slam
ATP Masters Series
ATP Tour
ATP Challenger Tour

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScore
Win1–02016 Charlottesville Men's Pro Challenger|Charlottesville, USChallengerHard Ruben Bemelmans6–4, 2–6, 7–6
Win2–02018 BNP Paribas Primrose Bordeaux – Singles|Bordeaux, FranceChallengerClay Grégoire Barrère6–7, 6–4, 7–5
Loss2–12018 Oracle Challenger Series – Chicago|Chicago, USChallengerHard Denis Istomin2–6, 4–6
Loss2–22018 Cary Challenger|Cary, USChallengerHard James Duckworth6–7, 3–6
Win3–22018 Knoxville Challenger|Knoxville Challenger, USChallengerHard Bjorn Fratangelo7–5, 4–6, 7–6
Win4–22018 JSM Challenger of Champaign–Urbana|Champaign Challenger, USChallengerHard Ryan Shane7–6, 6–3

Junior Grand Slam finals

Boys' Singles: 1 (1–0)

Boys' Doubles: 1 (0–1)

Performance timelines

Singles

Current through the 2019 Swiss Indoors.

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.
Season20152016201720182019Total
Wins000134