Reilly Opelka facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Reilly Opelka

Opelka at the 2018 Wimbledon Championships
Country (sports)	United States
Residence	Delray Beach, Florida, U.S.
Born	(1997-08-28) August 28, 1997 (age 26) St. Joseph, Michigan, U.S.
Height	6 ft 11 in (2.11 m)
Turned pro	2015
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Coach	Jay Berger Jean-Yves Aubone
Prize money	US$4,224,870
Singles
Career record	89–84 (51.45% in ATP World Tour and Grand Slam main draw matches, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	4
Highest ranking	No. 17 (February 28, 2022)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	3R (2022)
French Open	3R (2021)
Wimbledon	3R (2019)
US Open	4R (2021)
Doubles
Career record	21–23 (47.73%)
Career titles	1
Highest ranking	No. 89 (August 2, 2021)
Grand Slam doubles results
French Open	1R (2019)
US Open	2R (2017)
Team competitions
Davis Cup	RR (2019, 2021)

Reilly Opelka (born August 28, 1997) is an American professional tennis player. At 6 feet 11 inches tall, he is tied (with Ivo Karlović) for the tallest-ever ATP-ranked player, and can produce serves that measure over 140 mph. He has been ranked as high as World No. 17 in singles by the ATP, which he achieved on February 28, 2022, and in doubles as world No. 89 on August 2, 2021. He has won four ATP singles titles and one doubles title. He is a junior Wimbledon champion.

Personal life

Opelka was born in St. Joseph, Michigan and moved to Palm Coast, Florida at age 4. He didn't start playing tennis regularly until he began training through USTA in Boca Raton at 12 years old. He credits Tom Gullikson, 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. Opelka is an avid sportsperson supporting every team that has the word Chicago in it - namely the Chicago Bulls (NBA), the Chicago Bears (NFL) and the Chicago Blackhawks (NHL) - and serie A team Lazio.

Junior career

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

Professional career

Early years

Opelka at the 2016 Citi Open.

Opelka made his ATP debut at the 2016 U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships, where he lost in the first round to fifth seed Sam Querrey. In August, Opelka won his first three career ATP matches at the Atlanta Open to reach the semifinals at just his third 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 Memphis Open, he recorded his only ATP Tour level win of the year over fellow Next Gen American Jared Donaldson.

2018: Breakthrough, top 100 year-end ranking

2018 proved to be a breakthrough year for Opelka. He won three ATP Challenger titles in the season, the first American to do so 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.

His solid performance on the ATP Challenger Tour earned him his first top-100 year-end finish in singles, ending the season at world No. 99.

2019: First ATP title, top 50 debut

At the Australian Open, Opelka upset compatriot and ninth seed John Isner in the first round. This was the second top 10 win of his career. In February, Opelka again defeated Isner, saving six match points, en route to his first ATP title at the New York Open. At Wimbledon in July, he achieved his best Grand Slam result to date, reaching the tournament's third round and defeating Stan Wawrinka in the process. Over the summer and fall, he reached the semifinals of tournaments in Atlanta, Tokyo, and Basel. In November, he participated in the Davis Cup Finals for the United States, ultimately losing both his rubbers. He finished the season ranked 36th in the world.

2020: Second ATP title, Masters 1000 quarterfinal

In February, Opelka lifted his second career trophy at the Delray Beach Open after saving a match point in the semifinals against Milos Raonic. After an extended break due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, play resumed and Opelka reached his first ATP Tour Masters level quarterfinal at the Cincinnati Masters. En route he earned his fifth career top 10 win, defeating Matteo Berrettini.

2021: US Open fourth round, Masters 1000 final, top 20 debut

Opelka chose not to defend his Delray Beach title. He instead began the season at the Great Ocean Road Open as the sixth seed, but lost to Botic van de Zandschulp in the second round. At the Australian Open, he beat Lu Yen-hsun before losing to 27th seed Taylor Fritz, despite holding match points in the fourth set.

In Rome, Opelka beat Richard Gasquet, Lorenzo Musetti, Aslan Karatsev and Federico Delbonis to reach his first Masters semifinal, where he lost to Rafael Nadal.

Seeded 32nd at the French Open, Opelka beat clay-court specialists Andrej Martin and Jaume Munar to reach the third round, his best showing at this Grand Slam event, where he lost to Daniil Medvedev.

Partnering Jannik Sinner, he won his first doubles title at the Atlanta Open defeating Steve Johnson and Jordan Thompson. As a result he entered the top 100 in doubles at No. 89 on August 2, 2021. At the same tournament in singles he fell in the quarterfinals to Taylor Fritz.

At the Canada Masters in Toronto, he reached his second Masters 1000 semifinal by defeating Nick Kyrgios, 14th seed Grigor Dimitrov, Lloyd Harris and 10th seed Roberto Bautista Agut. He then upset 3rd seed and world No. 3, Stefanos Tsitsipas, to reach his first ATP Masters 1000 final. It was also his first win over a top 5 player. Opelka would lose to 1st seed and world No. 2 Daniil Medvedev in the final. With this successful run, he entered the top 25 in the ATP singles rankings for the first time at world No. 23 on August 16, 2021.

At the US Open, Opelka reached the fourth round of a Major for the first time in his career. There, he lost to Lloyd Harris in four sets. From this run, he cracked the top 20 in the ATP singles rankings for the first time at world No. 19 on September 13, 2021.

2022: Third and Fourth ATP titles

At the 2022 Australian Open, Opelka reached the third round, where he lost to Denis Shapovalov.

At the inaugural edition of the Dallas Open, Opelka won his third singles title after defeating Jenson Brooksby. In the semifinals, he defeated fellow American John Isner 7–6^(9–7), 7–6^(24–22). The 46-point tiebreak in the second set was the longest-ever at the ATP Tour level. At the 2022 Delray Beach Open, Opelka reached his second final in as many weeks, losing to Cameron Norrie. As a result he reached a new career-high ranking of world No. 18 on February 21, 2022 and world No. 17 a week later. At the 2022 BNP Paribas Open he reached the fourth round for the first time in his career at this Masters where he lost to fourth seed Rafael Nadal.

At the 2022 U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships, Opelka won his second title of the year and fourth of his career, defeating compatriot John Isner in what was the tallest ATP Tour final in the Open Era.

At the 2022 Mutua Madrid Open, Opelka lost to Sebastian Korda, at the 2022 Italian Open to Stan Wawrinka, and at the 2022 French Open to Filip Krajinović with all losses being in the first round.

Performance timelines

Singles

Current through the 2022 Citi Open.

Significant finals

Masters 1000 finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Result	Year	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	2021	Canadian Open	Hard	Daniil Medvedev	4–6, 3–6

ATP career finals

Singles: 6 (4 titles, 2 runner-ups)

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, United States	250 Series	Hard	Yoshihito Nishioka	7–5, 6–7(4–7), 6–2
Loss	2–1	Aug 2021	Canadian Open, Canada	Masters 1000	Hard	Daniil Medvedev	4–6, 3–6
Win	3–1	Feb 2022	Dallas Open, United States	250 Series	Hard (i)	Jenson Brooksby	7–6(7–5), 7–6(7–3)
Loss	3–2	Feb 2022	Delray Beach Open, United States	250 Series	Hard	Cameron Norrie	6–7(1–7), 6–7(4–7)
Win	4–2	Apr 2022	U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships, United States	250 Series	Clay	John Isner	6–3, 7–6(9–7)

Doubles: 4 (1 title, 3 runner-ups)

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)
Loss	0–3	Jun 2021	Queen's Club Championships, United Kingdom	500 Series	Grass	John Peers	Pierre-Hugues Herbert Nicolas Mahut	4–6, 5–7
Win	1–3	Jul 2021	Atlanta Open, United States	250 Series	Hard	Jannik Sinner	Steve Johnson Jordan Thompson	6–4, 6–7(6–8), [10–3]

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 6 (4 titles, 2 runner-ups)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Nov 2016	Charlottesville, United States	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, United States	Challenger	Hard	Denis Istomin	4–6, 2–6
Loss	2–2	Sep 2018	Cary, United States	Challenger	Hard	James Duckworth	6–7(4–7), 3–6
Win	3–2	Nov 2018	Knoxville, United States	Challenger	Hard (i)	Bjorn Fratangelo	7–5, 4–6, 7–6(7–2)
Win	4–2	Nov 2018	Champaign, United States	Challenger	Hard (i)	Ryan Shane	7–6(8–6), 6–3

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponent	Score
Loss	0–1	Sep 2014	USA F24, Claremont	Futures	Hard	Deiton Baughman	Jeff Dadamo Dennis Nevolo	2–5 ret.

Junior Grand Slam finals

Boys' singles: 1 (1 title)

Result	Year	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	2015	Wimbledon	Grass	Mikael Ymer	7–6(7–5), 6–4

Boys' doubles: 1 (1 runner–ups)

Result	Year	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	2015	Wimbledon	Grass	Akira Santillan	Sumit Nagal Lý Hoàng Nam	6–7(4–7), 4–6

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. Players who have been No. 1 are in boldface.

* As of 20 May  2022 (2022 -05-20)^[update].

Top 10 wins

• Opelka has a 7–12 (36.84%) record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.

#	Player	Rank	Event	Surface	Rd	Score	ROR
2018
1.	Jack Sock	8	Delray Beach Open, 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
2020
5.	Matteo Berrettini	8	Cincinnati Masters, United States	Hard	3R	6–3, 7–6(7–4)	39
6.	Daniil Medvedev	6	St. Petersburg Open, Russia	Hard (i)	2R	2–6, 7–5, 6–4	36
2021
7.	Stefanos Tsitsipas	3	Canadian Open, Canada	Hard	SF	6–7(2–7), 7–6(7–4), 6–4	32

* As of 20 May  2022 (2022 -05-20)^[update].

See also

In Spanish: Reilly Opelka para niños