The 25-year-old American Reilly Opelka has not played since Washington last August. Reilly is currently ranked 81st and will drop out from the top-100 next week after losing 150 points from the 2022 Delray Beach final. Opelka has not talked much about his issues, undergoing hip surgery and staying away from the court for half a year.
The giant server will leave the top-100 after over four years, entering the selected group for the second time in January 2019 and only looking forward. Opelka claimed four ATP 250 titles at home in the USA between New York 2019 and Houston last April.
Reilly was ranked 17th a year ago and will have to work hard to crack the top-20 again once he decides to compete again. The American kicked off the previous season ranked 26th and reached the Australian Open third round. Heading home, Opelka embraced a notable swing in Dallas and Delray Beach.
Reilly Opelka will leave the top-100 for the first time since January 2019.
He conquered the title in Houston following tight victories over John Isner and Jenson Brooksby in four tie breaks. Reilly experienced additional eight tie breaks in Delray Beach and failed to go all the way following a 7-6, 7-6 loss final loss to Cameron Norrie.
Opelka gave his best against Rafael Nadal in Indian Wells, falling 7-6, 7-6 and retiring in the opening match in Miami. Reilly was a player to beat in Houston, ousting Nick Kyrgios and John Isner to secure the season’s second title and the fourth overall.
Opelka could have played better on clay in Europe, reaching the Geneva semi-final and losing in the first match in the other four events, including Roland Garros. Things were not much better on grass too, scoring one victory at Wimbledon and experiencing three losses.
Struggling physically, Reilly took a couple of weeks off and returned to action in Washington in August. The giant server prevailed over Denis Kudla in the first round, winning sets two and three and blasting 28 aces. Opelka faced Nick Kyrgios in the second match and experienced a 7-6, 6-2 loss in 76 minutes.
Kyrgios claimed the opening set’s tie break 7-1 and broke Opelka twice in the second to sail over the top. As we already said, it has been Reilly’s last match on the Tour, skipping the rest of the season following hip surgery and missing all the events so far in 2023.
The American will try to recover for the season’s first Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells and Miami, although it’s hard to find “evidence” of him from the practice court.
