7ft Tall American Star’s Heroic Dallas Open Return After 3 Years Sparks Optimism Among Tennis Bigwigs

Reilly Opelka is looking unstoppable in Dallas! With a recent win over the British star, Cameron Norrie, the American is now back in the QF on a US hard court tournament for the first time in three years. Opelka won this tournament in 2022. He defeated his compatriot Jenson Brooksby by two sets in that epic final. However, after that, a lot of things happened in his life. Injuries have been a major hindrance in his career. After an eight-month hiatus, Reilly Opelka returned to the Tour in July 2024. Soon after making his comeback, Opelka showcased his flare yet again in some of the tournaments and recently his impressive performance in Dallas even drew a comparison with Novak Djokovic!

Opelka’s 2025 season started with a bang! He defeated the 24-time Grand Slam champion, Novak Djokovic, in the QF of the Brisbane International and went all the way to the summit clash. However, he was forced to take a mid-match retirement in the final due to an injury. Opelka had an ordinary Australian Open campaign after that, but he did manage to make a strong comeback in Dallas, defeating Alexander Shevchenko in the first round (R32) by 7-6(3),6-4 and Cameron Norrie in R16 by 4-6, 7-6, 6-4.

During a recent episode of the Tennis Channel Live Podcast, the former American pro Jimmy Arias shared his thoughts on the performance of 6ft 11 inches tall, Reilly Opelka in the first match in Dallas. “Beautifully played from Opelka to start the tiebreaker, couple of groundstrokes. He’s looking awfully dangerous. Obviously, he has always been a bit danger with that serve, but his groundstrokes looked better than I’ve seen with him. Especially the forehand wing, his backhand is always great,” Arias said.

Further, the experts Brett Haber, Nick Monroe, and Jimmy Arias went on to highlight how, like most Americans, Reilly Opelka seems to thrive on the home soil. They spoke about Reilly Opelka’s incredible record of making 7 out 8 career finals on North American soil. Reilly Opelka hit 18 aces against Shevchenko and even in the second match against Norrie he hit the same number of aces.

Not only that, even against someone like Novak Djokovic, he hit 16 aces! Speaking about Opelka’s performance against Novak Djokovic in Brisbane, Arias added, “Reilly Opelka is a Top 10 player when he’s healthy. He has got this serve that’s almost untouchable and then we saw his movement when he was playing Novak Djokovic there in Brisbane. He can move with the best of them. If he’s firing serves and taking big cuts on returns, only he has to do is to win one return game and that could be the set and the match.“

Reilly Opelka has always been a big admirer of Novak Djokovic. Shortly after clinching his victory over the Serb in Brisbane, he said, “He’s the greatest player the sport has ever seen. It’s difficult being in his position. He can scout me or other opponents all day long… the reality is we have nothing to lose against him.” Even Djokovic heaped praise on the American for his incredible performance. “Amazing tennis, Reilly. Absolutely deserved. Good luck,” the Serb wrote on social media.

Can Opelka keep stunning the tennis world with his impressive performances in the 2025 season? Time will tell, but for now, his next mission will be to beat his compatriot Tommy Paul in the QF of the 2025 Dallas Open. However, we saw a controversial event taking place in his previous match against Cameron Norrie. What really happened?

Reilly Opelka was spotted taking a jibe at the chair umpire after his R16 match against Cameron Norrie

Cameron Norrie started the match on the front foot by clinching the first set against Reilly Opelka. However, the American came back strongly in the next two sets to seal the match at 4-6,7-6(5),6-4. However, in the middle of this high-octane clash, there was a controversial moment. During the third set, when Reilly Opelka was leading it by 5-4 (30-30), he got a bit distracted by someone in the crowd while serving. After that, he even yelled at the spectator saying, “Are you doing it on f—— purpose or what?! Go the f— inside, buddy.“

Although the heckler was removed later, still as a result of throwing these expletives, the chair umpire Gregory Allensworth penalized Opelka and gave Cameron Norrie a point. However, the American didn’t look too pleased with the decision and he even argued with the chair umpire.

Opelka vented out his frustration during his post-match interview with Cheryl Murray as well. He said, “Greg Allensworth is the worst ref [umpire] in the ATP. We were talking about him in the locker room, all the players, it really is a coincidence about two days ago [we were talking about the worst umpire on the tour, and he] is the worst one … Allensworth is real bad, he almost changed the outcome of that match, just because he doesn’t really know what he is doing.“

Reilly Opelka wasn’t too happy about the fact that the chair umpire didn’t ask the spectator to shut up. “I am all for whatever, but if you want to come here to be an a—— then I am going to be one back. It shouldn’t be one-sided traffic, if you want to be disrespectful to me, I can’t just be a punching bag and if the ref isn’t doing his job and he penalizes me it is not a good look,” he said. Interestingly, after this incident, Opelka didn’t even shake hands with Allensworth once the match concluded. What are your thoughts on this controversial incident in Dallas? Share your thoughts in the comments below.