Reilly Opelka stuns No. 1 seed in first ATP tournament in 2 years
Reilly Opelka was uncertain he’d play an ATP match again on grass — like he did Monday at the Hall of Fame Open in Newport, Rhode Island.
In fact, Opelka wasn’t sure he’d ever play an ATP tournament on hard court or clay, either. After two years of stops, starts and surgeries, the 6-foot-11 American former phenom from Boca Raton was already mulling a new line of work.
“Just being out there, that was the best part,” Opelka told The Palm Beach Post Tuesday via phone from Rhode Island. “There was a moment where I wasn’t sure if that would happen again.”
In a third-set tiebreaker, Opelka, 26, won his first-round match over 92ndranked Frenchman Constant Lestienne in his first ATP tour match in two years.
And the dramatic journey didn’t end until Saturday’s semifinals as Opelka won three matches before running out of gas. Opelka was upended by fellow up-and-coming American and No. 3 seed Alex Michelsen 6-2, 6-0.
On Wednesday, the wild card with the big beard and big serve upset No. 1 seed Adrian Mannarino 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in the second round and won his quarterfinal Thursday against American Mackenzie McDonald in a three-setter.
The mission has been accomplished in a big way.
This Newport event was just to get his feet wet after an injury layoff that included hip surgery to remove what he called “a tumorous growth” and two wrist surgeries, neither of which went well.
“I totally definitely did (think of retiring),” said Opelka, who has avoided speaking about his two-year layoff until this interview. “I was ready to pivot. I’m pretty confident I’ll land on my feet. I’ve always landed on my feet in whatever I did. I think I’m good at making best of situations, and for me, I was ready to pivot.”
But Opelka, once ranked as high as 17, didn’t and American tennis is better for it. The exciting right-hander who can clock a 150 mph serve is gearing up for the U.S. Open in late August with tuneup tournaments slated for Atlanta next week, Washington D.C., and then Cincinnati.
It was at the 2022 Citi Open in Washington when Opelka played his last ATP match before Monday’s two-hour bout.
At that time, Opelka, a Michigan native who moved to Boca Raton for tennis training at age 14, had been long dealing
Reilly Opelka competes at the Infosys Hall of Fame Open at the International Tennis Hall of Fame. with a hip problem. A benign tumor had developed in his hip capsule and it kept slipping into his hip joint, according to Opelka.
Surgery was finally done on opening day of the 2022 U.S. Open in late August. It was performed by Bryan Kelly, the orthopedic hip surgeon for the Hospital for Special Surgery who does work for the New York Rangers.
“The tumor moved around and it stuck in my joint and I literally couldn’t move my leg,” Opelka said. “We were delaying surgery for so long and then a couple of pieces broke off and I literally couldn’t walk when I woke up. They’d inject it with a fluid and I could walk around and my leg could move again. But pieces had broken off and there were fragments in my hip joint. It could’ve caused further damage later on. I saw an unbelievable surgeon. I can’t believe how good he was. My hip was 150%.”
But then his wrist wasn’t. A subluxated tendon was the diagnosis as he readied for his return for the Delray Beach Open in February 2023 — six months after hip surgery.
That wrist surgery went awry and caused multiple issues with his cannon of a right arm.
“I saw a bad surgeon,” Opelka said. “She messed up on the first one. It got infected. I was in excruciating pain. I couldn’t sleep at night, had pain down my arm and hand. I needed a second surgery and that caused problems after a cast on my arm led to nerve issues.”
Opelka had tried to make a comeback at a minor league Challenger event in Virginia seven months ago and had to shut it down after one match.
There were times he just stopped playing tennis for long periods, but he made the most of it. He spent lots of time in New York and San Francisco. He traveled to Europe with multiple trips to Paris, Milan and Belgium.
“There’s more to life than tennis and I took that approach well,” Opelka said. “No one wants to be injured for that long a time. But I was better equipped to handle it than most.”
The arm feels fine now, the hip “feels amazing” and the comeback is on without the grandiose expectations from three years ago. USA tennis desperately seeks the next men’s Grand Slam champion.
“We all know what I’m capable of when I stay healthy,” Opelka said. “My goal is to stay healthy. I’m really trying to be able to play a full schedule and build up my stamina, endurance, my arm and be high-intensity every match. I want to complete an entire season like a couple of years ago. That’s the main goal now.”
The tallest player to ever be ranked by the ATP computer, Opelka gets to use 12 “protected ranking” exemptions for tournaments. While he took wild cards for Newport and Atlanta, he’ll use one of the protected ranking spots for the U.S. Open.
He still remembers being 19, rising to 105th in the world and being stunned when the USTA didn’t give him a wild card. “I can’t afford to take the risk at the U.S. Open,” Opelka said. “I’ve never gotten a wild card there.”
Opelka bought a house in Boca Raton a few years ago and took in as a roommate Tommy Paul, currently ranked 13th after losing in the Wimbledon quarterfinals last week to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz. Opelka and Paul met when they were 8 and have been close friends since they were 14. Neither wants to move from Boca Raton.
Opelka loves the proximity to three airports: West Palm Beach, where he can fly direct to New York; Fort Lauderdale, where he can get to California; and Miami, with direct flights to Europe.
And mostly, Opelka loves the stressfree vibe here.
“I like that it’s safe where I’m at,” Opelka said. “That’s pretty nice. I don’t think living in New York and spending a lot of time in New York and San Francisco, you certainly can’t say that. That’s a luxury you take for granted in Florida, particularly in Palm Beach County. Safety is really nice. You don’t have to look over your shoulder. There’s not too much nonsense. You never feel like ‘Oh my God, where am I going to park my car here? When I come back, will it still be here?’ Those thoughts don’t come in your head.”
Opelka touched on other topics during his talk with The Post.
What is secret behind your serve that topped 146 mph?
“It’s height and great technique. Both. I definitely have great technique and am tall. Being able to compete week in and week out and get a ton of repetitions. When you start winning matches, your serve is getting more repetitions. It’s one thing to go hit a serve with a basket on the court at home. It’s another thing to hit serves in a tournament on a stadium court against a good player. The more matches you get the more stress you play in, the better you start to serve. That’s the goal for me now. Get in as many matches as I can and the better I’ll serve.”
How did friendship with Tommy Paul start?
“We just grew up together. He and I kind of hit it off, lived together in the dorms at the USTA. There were other junior kids much better than us at 14 but we were always around the same level, playing the same tournaments, in the same group with the same coaches. We did the whole cycle of tennis together and we shared an apartment in Delray. I’m not that surprised but I’m very proud (of his rise).”
How did it feel to be on the Newport court after two years off?
“Everything surprisingly felt the same. That’s what I was amazed by when I got here. It’s been two years. I thought it would feel a lot different. But I guess I’m so programmed. Even when the match got closer, everything felt more and more similar.”