Reilly Opelka

Reilly Opelka
	Opelka at the 2018 Wimbledon Championships
Country (sports)	United States
Residence	Palm Coast, Florida, U.S.
Born	August 28, 1997 (age 27); St. Joseph, Michigan, U.S.
Height	6 ft 11 in (2.11 m)
Turned pro	2015
Plays	Right-handed (two handed-backhand)
Coach	Dustin Taylor
Prize money	US$380,791
Singles
Career record	6–13
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
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)	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