WHAT HAPPENED: It was a much-anticipated match between two very different players: No. 7 seed David Goffin, from Belgium, and American Reilly Opelka. The most obvious difference between the two players is, well, vertical. At 6-foot-11, Opelka is tied with Ivo Karlovic as the tallest Top-50 player in ATP Rankings history. Goffin, age 29, is a full foot shorter.
As with most tall players, Opelka has a monster serve. At the 2019 US Open, the American had an average first-serve speed of 123 mph, versus 109 mph for Goffin. As play got underway on Court 17, the American’s serve didn’t disappoint—in the first 30 minutes of the match, the 23-year-old from Michigan hammered eight aces. But Goffin handled his service games, too. And, as seemed inevitable, the first set went to a tiebreak. Opelka was the first to blink, serving nervously and spraying forehands. Goffin took the tiebreak, 7-2.
Tied at 3-3 in the second set, Opelka was finally able to break Goffin’s serve, then consolidated that break to go up 5-3. The American kept up the pressure to break Goffin yet again, taking the second set, 6-3.
With the match leveled at one set apiece, the points slowed down, a factor that seemed to favor Goffin, who broke the American to go up 2-1. Opelka’s serve failed him again, Goffin cruised to 4-1, then made quick work of the rest of the set, taking it, 6-1.
Early in the fourth set, Opelka stopped short, grimacing. Just days prior at the 2020 Western & Southern Open, the American was forced to retire from his quarterfinal match against Stefanos Tsitsipas due to an injury to his right knee. And while Opelka showed up without wraps or any other indication he was hurting, by the time the match hit the two-hour mark, he was flexing it between points. Still Opelka managed to hold his own, racking up some 47 winners to Goffin’s 17. But the No. 7 seed from Belgium managed to break when he needed it most, winning the final set, 6-4. Final score: 7-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.
WHAT IT MEANS: The two players have met twice—and both matches were grueling. Opelka was the more recent victor, at the 2019 Swiss Indoor Basel tournament, winning 6-7, 7-6, 7-5. At the 2017 Australian Open, Goffin needed four sets to claim his victory. So another long battle was all but preordained, a tough task for the player who, like Opelka, is coming off an injury.
MATCH POINT: If you need more stats to prove 2020 is, well, different, you have to go back to 1997 to find a field of American men as deep as this year's US Open main draw. There were 21 men on Day 1; 22 in 1997. Although the tall American didn't pull through, another one did: Taylor Fritz, a long-time Opelka pal, won his first-round match against Germany's Dominik Koepfer, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
