Reilly Opelka was due to make his UTS debut in Frankfurt this month – under the nickname “The Bot”, a reference to his incredible serving power.
But following wrist surgery and a year-long absence from the Tour, the American has had to withdraw, with his recovery not quite where it needs to be to compete at the highest level.
Opelka is replaced by Casper Ruud, nickname “The Ice Man”.
The line-up for Frankfurt still includes Gael “La Monf” Monfils, Andrey “Rublo” Rublev, Diego “El Peque” Schwartzman, Daniil “The Chessmaster” Medvedev, Benoit “The Rebel” Paire, “The Thunder” Jan-Lennard Struff, and Christopher “The Rocket” Eubanks.
But it won’t include Opelka – Tennis Majors caught up with him via Zoom to find out more.
Reilly, you have some news about your participation in UTS Frankfurt – you’re on the road back from wrist surgery, so how are things progressing with you?
They’re progressing well, actually. I had a few setbacks along the way with this wrist surgery. So it’s just been up and down for a while, and I’m finally on the right path. I was telling (UTS player coordinator) Jeremy Chardy that if UTS was one week later, I would be able to play – or maybe two weeks later – I’m pretty confident I could play but I’m just not quite there yet. I still haven’t fully started serving yet. I think that’s the biggest thing right now, just having the confidence in my wrist to really swing hard at the serve. So that’s the only thing that’s delaying me further. I can do it, which is great, but the problem is after one or two days of intense serving, my wrist still gets a little irritated. So I’ve got to be a little careful.
You sound like you’re doing actually quite well with the rehab process. How patient have you been with it this year?
I’ve had to be. I wasn’t able to move my arm for six months of the year. I was in a cast all the way past my elbow. I was kind of stuck like this for half a year [he moves his arm to sit across the front of his body at a 90-degree angle]. So I just had to learn to be patient.
Unfortunately it’s not been smooth sailing, where I’ve gone, ‘I feel good, I can play, and maybe I’ll just be smart.’ It’s actually the opposite. It hasn’t been easy coming back. I’ve been on court now for a couple months. And the progression of coming back from not using your arm or elbow for six months to playing tennis at full intensity is crazy. It’s so particular. I started with foam balls for the first two weeks and I used like a red dot ball which is for seven, eight-year-olds for two weeks, and then a green dot ball. It’s just been a wild progression.
It’s everything I believe in for tennis. It’s everything I love about it.
Reilly Opelka about UTS
I can imagine UTS is something that you’d really enjoy doing in terms of your personality, the way it runs – you must be annoyed to be missing out by such a close margin.
Super annoyed! Yeah, it’s right up my alley. It’s everything I believe in for tennis. It’s everything I love about it. I love playing with the idea of radical changes. And that’s why I’m a big believer in UTS.
There’s been a lot of other products that have come aside from the ATP that have tried to do things differently, the Tiebreak Tens and all these little tiebreak events, but they don’t work because it’s not radical enough. It’s not so different of a product where people are itching to see something that different because you can see a tiebreaker on Tennis Channel every day. So what I like about UTS is it’s radical and it’s super different. It’s way out of left field. It’s hectic. It’s crazy. And I think that’s how you test the waters, it’s by really doing a 180: not just making it a couple tiebreakers here and there, it’s a totally different product. It’s unlike anything else and that’s why I believe in it so much.
Are you a good tennis watcher if you’re not playing yourself?
Yeah, yeah, I’ve been watching. Maybe I haven’t as much time to watch the Open because I’ve really amped up my training, but when I hadn’t had much to do and I was limited to playing for 30 minutes every other day or three days a week and whatnot, I had so much free time, so I was watching a lot more tennis. Especially when I was injured, when I was in my cast, I was watching a lot of tennis.
Have you got the TV problems with your cable service provider that Daniil Medvedev was talking about last night?
No, that was funny! I’ve had an easy time between Tennis Channel and Tennis TV, I’ve watched a lot of great tennis.
Who are you cheering on at the US Open? Or are you equally cheering on all of the Americans?
It’s pretty equal. I love Tommy. He’s like my brother. Now he’s out of the tournament. Frances. Ben. Fritz. I love all those guys so much. Ben reminds me a lot of [Andy] Roddick. Frances is Frances. He’s one of a kind. He played well in New York. Taylor, I’m happy he’s having a breakthrough Grand Slam run. He’s always performed in every other week, but he’s never really performed in a Slam yet, to the level he does in the Masters 1000 and stuff so I’m super excited that that he broke that little barrier almost for himself. And I think now it’s going to just accelerate him into the next realm of things for him because he is the best one of us right now. The rankings don’t lie but even let’s take numbers aside, just I think his tennis is better than every other American.
And of course the women’s side, you’ve got Maddie and Coco through.
Yeah, Coco has really also improved her tennis a ton. She really has. She made some great changes to her team. I think her adding Brad Gilbert was exciting, and you can tell right away how she changed her patterns. She’s a lot of things in her game, and it’s paid off.
Well, we’re so sorry that you’re not going to be fit for Frankfurt but we’re glad that you’re getting there. So you look after yourself and we’ll see you soon!
Sounds great. Thank you so much!
