United States of America’s tennis star Reilly Opelka has grown in stature on all fronts this year. He started the year as a 35th ranked player and has broken into the top 25 rankings with a final appearance in Toronto and semifinals in Rome being his highlight from this year.
While the lanky American is known for his giant powerful serve feels that he is a lot more than just a good serve. Opelka lost to South African star Lloyd Harris in the fourth round of the US Open. Opelka however is very satisfied with his performance and feels that this year’s experience has seen him rise as a better player.
He feels that he has the best supporting team which supports him to no end. Opelka feels that he has learned from every little thing this year.
“I think I put a good team around, I think my coach, physio, I think everyone on my team, my mentors, people I learn from, people I surround myself with outside of the tennis court, I think those are all key ingredients for me learning and improving a lot,” Opelka said in his post-match press conference.
“Yeah, I think there is things you can learn from every top-20, top-30 tennis player,” he added. “There is a reason why they say if the four or five best players in the world aren’t doing something, there is a reason for it.”
The 24-year-old American has learned a lot about himself from his career best year. The World No. 24 feels that this year has taught him that he can beat top players even on his bad days.
Opelka feels that he has increased his arsenal of skills which will hand him a lot of confidence going forward.
“I mean, I have learned how tough I can be to beat and how tough I can be to play, even when I’m not playing well,” Opelka said. “I learned I can win a lot of matches without serving great, without returning great.”
“You know, obviously it’s not easy to win a match when you’re not returning serve on the same day, but I have expanded my kind of my toolbox to win, to beat some top guys, some unbelievable tennis players when I might have a part of my game that’s not firing,” he added.
