WHAT HAPPENED: In his main draw debut in Flushing Meadows, American Reilly Opelka defeated world No. 11 Fabio Fognini, 6-3, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3, on Monday to advance to Round 2 at the 2019 US Open. The 21-year-old Opelka used a dominant serve that reached 136 mph to keep Fognini on his heels.
At 6-foot-11, Opelka is the tallest player ever on the ATP Tour, and he had a 13-inch height advantage over Fognini. Surprisingly, he did not have much of an advantage in terms of fan support; the 32-year-old Italian received the louder ovation when the two walked onto Court 17. Eventually, the crowd roared its appreciation for Opelka as the lanky right-hander not only served up 26 aces but also flashed impressive court coverage.
Opelka set the tone early with a pair of aces in the match’s first game. He fought off two break points from Fognini in the third game and got the first break of the match in game six to go up, 4-2. After both players held serve, Opelka closed out the set during a game in which Fognini questioned an out call and began to show some frustration.
Opelka moves well for a man his size, with perhaps the best example coming in the fifth game of the second set. At 2-2, Opelka ran a long way to get to the net on a Fognini drop shot, hitting a cross-court winner that helped him go up a break.
At 5-4 in the second, Fognini again showed his frustration—this time due to unforced errors. On two separate points, Fognini slammed his racquet to the ground. Still, he had two break points in the game—but Opelka fought them off and closed out the set with another ace.
Fognini managed to win a third-set tiebreak, but could not build any momentum off that. Opelka jumped to a 4-1 lead in the fourth set and closed it out soon after that.
Opelka had only four double faults to go with his 26 aces. He had a first-serve win percentage of 79 percent (56/71) and had 58 winners.
WHAT IT MEANS: Opelka, who turned heads at Wimbledon last month with a second-round upset of Stan Wawrinka, might be serving notice that he can be a threat to the top seeds here at the US Open. Opelka’s Round 2 opponent will be the winner of Monday afternoon’s first-round match between Dominik Koepfer of Germany and Jaume Munar of Spain. If he wins two more matches, Opelka could potentially find himself with a fourth-round match against No. 5 Daniil Medvedev.
MATCH POINT: Opelka’s first career title came earlier this year at the New York Open, so the Empire State has been very good to him in 2019. How far can his dominant serve carry him in Flushing Meadows?
