Reilly Opelka

Reilly Opelka (born August 28, 1997) is an American professional tennis player. He has a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 17, achieved on 28 February 2022 and a best doubles ranking of No. 89, reached on 2 August 2021. He has won five ATP Tour titles combined, four in singles and one in doubles.

At 6 feet 11 inches (2.11 m), Opelka is the joint-tallest player – tied with Croatian Ivo Karlović – on Tour history. This height is an asset, as he can produce serves that measure over 140 miles per hour (225 km/h).

Opelka was born in St. Joseph, Michigan, United States and moved to Palm Coast, Florida at age 4. He did not start playing tennis regularly until his admission at USTA Training Center in Boca Raton at 12-years-old. He rapidly took part in junior tournaments.

Opelka had good results on the ITF junior circuit. He won the boys' singles category at 2015 Wimbledon Championships, defeating wildcard Mikael Ymer in the final. He was also a runner-up on the doubles event, partnering with Akira Santillan.

He reached an ITF junior combined ranking of world No. 4 on 13 July 2015.

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 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.