	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 3, 2019

Reilly Opelka

Wimbledon, London, England

R. OPELKA/S. Wawrinka

7-5, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 8-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. That's a huge one to win. What was the mental battle like out there in that match?
REILLY OPELKA: He got really comfortable. Started hitting some really good returns. I had to adjust a lot. My mind was always thinking. You know, especially after I lost the third set, I knew I had to make some adjustments quick to start, because he was in every return game.

Q. How frustrating is that? You're not used to that, I would imagine?
REILLY OPELKA: Yeah, I mean, at this level you see it more often. Today we went through a match where he had breakpoints, like, almost every game.

So I play the big points really well on my serve, and that's what good players do, you know, they make you find other ways to win that you're not always comfortable with.

Q. Could you explain a little bit the kinds of adjustments you are talking about?
REILLY OPELKA: Just different things depending on where he was standing on the return, what he was doing. Obviously I started serving and volleying a lot, and he was killing me. He was starting to return really well. He was putting a lot of balls at my feet.

At first I had a lot of success serving and volleying so I kept with that. And then as he kind of picked up on what I was doing and started reading my serve a little bit, it was more difficult for me to win points at the net. So I had to play, played a lot of tennis on the baseline today.

Q. Raonic next.
REILLY OPELKA: Ah, yeah.

Q. A lot of rallies in that one?
REILLY OPELKA: Yeah, definitely not (smiling).

Q. What will it be like being on the other side of that? You're facing what people face.
REILLY OPELKA: Yeah, fortunately I have seen it a few times already playing Anderson, Isner, Querrey. There so many guys now that are similar, similar styles, big guys, big serves.

Obviously he's been a really good player on grass and he's done well, especially at Wimbledon. Again, he's the favorite, he's had more experience here. Just allows me to play free. You know, trust my game and...

Q. Why are you here and not in the NBA?
REILLY OPELKA: Good question.

Q. Isner, same question.
REILLY OPELKA: That's a great question. I wish I was (smiling). I regret it every day. And, yeah. That's pretty much all I'm going to say.

Q. Forgive us, English, we're not -- you were a tentative basketball player, as well?
REILLY OPELKA: I enjoy it a lot. It's my favorite sport. I don't play it much any more. When I'm home I shoot every day, I go to the court and play all the time, but I never, like, played serious or anything.

Q. A center, I assume?
REILLY OPELKA: I never -- I don't play, you know, in an organized...

Q. You didn't play high school ball?
REILLY OPELKA: No, I didn't play high school ball.

Q. How tall exactly are you? You're listed as 6'11" but there are some suggestions you might be over 7'0" now.
REILLY OPELKA: I have answered this question, like, 150 times. It's the same as it was yesterday, and, I don't know. Close, 6'11", 7'0". Not sure.

Q. In terms of coming over, because in the States there is lots more tall people, but it's out of the norm in England. The accommodation-wise, did you have to search special places for beds...
REILLY OPELKA: Not really. I'm comfortable. I stay at the Chelsea Harbour Hotel, which has been great for me. Other than that, no, last week was rough. In Eastbourne, kind of like an older town, wasn't much there for me (smiling).

Q. Could you fit on the bed?
REILLY OPELKA: Not really. They didn't have air conditioning, which is shocking. It's like 100 degrees. Every year I come here, and, like, Why is there no AC? They're, like, Oh, it's never hot here. Every year it's over 80 degrees. I'm, like, That's not true.

Q. Could you talk about your journey winning the boy's title here. Has it been difficult up and down?
REILLY OPELKA: Yeah, it's been very different. I spent a lot of time on the T Tour and had to play a lot of the challengers and just kind of grinded for the last two years on there.

And then, you know, 2018 was an important year for me. And this has been -- I have only played ATP events, and it's been a good year so far.

Q. I don't want to ruin the joy of today, but want to remind you that you had lost to Thomas Fabbiano in Australian Open.
REILLY OPELKA: Yeah.

Q. Thomas Fabbiano just beat Karlovic, so we call him the giant killer. What do you remember of that match? Why do you think that he's capable to beat you? He's the shortest guy on the tour almost. Today he gave only one breakpoint to Karlovic the whole match and he won in five sets.
REILLY OPELKA: Yeah, he's tough. Obviously he's really good on grass. He beat Tsitsipas, which is -- honestly that's more -- obviously that's more of an upset than anything. When Karlovic plays and when I play, there are so many close matches.

Q. You lost...
REILLY OPELKA: ...7-6 in the fifth. Could have gone either way. I'm sure his match today was a similar story, right? Five-setter?

Q. Yeah, five-setter. Only one breakpoint. You had more chances.
REILLY OPELKA: Yeah, I just think he's a really good player in general. I don't think it has much to do with the matchup against him maybe being good against big guys. I just think he's good. It's not much of a surprise to me that he beat Ivo. I think he's a really good player.

Q. Stan is a three-time slam winner. Where does that victory rate in your career?
REILLY OPELKA: It's a huge win. More so the situation of the match being down two sets to one against him. Breakpoints the first game in the fourth set, and that's tough obviously.

He easily could have walked away with that in four sets. But I'm just proud of how I competed and how I handled the big moments of the match.

Q. Did you ever think about, as things went to 6-All in the final set, that 12-All was a possibility at all?
REILLY OPELKA: Hard to say. No, honestly, because there was a lot of breaks in the match. There wasn't any tiebreakers played at all. So, I mean, if we got to 12-All, I actually would have been more surprised if we got to 12-All.

I thought there was going to be some -- I'm not saying I was confident I was going to break, because he had a break point against me at 6-All.

He was on my serve a lot. That's why I didn't -- I had two breakpoints in the fifth. Actually won the breakpoint, pretty much. I hit a backhand on the line. They called it out. Challenge. Had to replay the point. So, yeah.

Q. When was that?
REILLY OPELKA: First game -- I was up 1-0 in the fifth, 30-40. I played a really good point, hit a backhand down the line, on the line. He barely made it back. They called it out. I challenged it. It was in. Replayed the point. I lost. So that was tough, as well. You know, I felt like could have been a break, but...

Q. You approve of the rule change? You like 12-All as opposed to playing it out forever?
REILLY OPELKA: Yeah.

Q. Is that hard to not stay with you, to get past something -- I hit a great shot, I've got the break, and all of a sudden I don't?
REILLY OPELKA: No, honestly I have been so used to it from the T Tour the last year. They miss so many calls there. There's no Hawk-Eye. Officiating there is tougher. I have just learned to deal with it.

Q. Because of 2015, do you have a special feeling here?
REILLY OPELKA: Yeah, 100%, for sure. That year was crazy. I was down match points in the first round. Like, you know, when you win a tournament, there is always, like, some luck or magic in that week, and, you know, that's how I felt about it at the time. I still do. So, yeah, it's always special.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297