ATP Houston: Opelka after beating Kyrgios in the final
Reilly Opelka is in the final of the 250 tournament after beating Nick Kyrgios 6:3 and 7:5.
by Dennis Heineman
last edit: Apr 09, 2022, 09:33 pm
Admittedly, it's never easy against Opelka's strong serves. You could feel sorry for the good Nick Kyrgios when the balls kept flying past him. In addition, Kyrgios is of course someone who needs a few highlights to really get in the mood to play. He didn't develop that in the first sentence. He let himself be broken quite early, so that the first set went to Opelka 6:3. And Kyrgios? He grumbled something to himself, but otherwise remained calm – for the time being.
Kyrgios sour: Wrong decision by the referee?
The second sentence was more motivated for Kyrgios, so the body language was right again. However, this positive trend only lasted until the 3:3. Then there was the break again for Opelka, who was on the right track to winning the second comparison with the Australian. But what about confirming the breaks? Just now he was weakening, so that Kyrgios was back. When the score was 5: 5, one of those Kyrgios moments followed again, which could not be understood immediately on TV. The chair umpire probably missed a ball from Opelka, which could have been out of bounds. Kyrgios was so upset that he was denied an important point later on - at 30:40. So Opelka was ahead 6:5 and finished to 7:5. After the 6:3 and 7:5 success, Opelka now meets Isner or Garin.