Palm Coast's Reilly Opelka Is Wimbledon Boys Champion

reilly opelka wimbledon champion — He’s done it.

Last Updated: 5:02 p.m. with Reilly Opelka interview.

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Ten years ago Reilly Opelka wandered onto the courts of Trails Racquet Club, just another little kid looking for a sport to try.
Now he’s a Wimbledon champion. And he belongs to Palm Coast.

Let’s say that again, because it sounds unreal the first time. Reilly Opelka is a champion of Wimbledon.

For Palm Coast, a city perpetually searching for the ace in its marketing strategy, it’s more than a big deal that lends itself to all sorts of possibilities, just beyond the congratulations. “I want to congratulate Reilly on becoming the 11th American to win the Wimbledon Juniors Championship,” Palm Coast council member Jason DeLorenzo reacted immediately after the match. “All your hard work and dedication makes us #PalmCoastProud.”

The 17-year-old, 6-foot-10 kid who had never been past the second round at a Grand Slam tournament until June finished off an incredible week by defeating Mikael Ymer of Sweden, 7-6 (5), 6-4 Sunday morning to grab the Wimbledon boys singles championship.
Rocketing forehands and backhands past Ymer and using the match’s only service break late in the second set to propel him, Opelka clinched the win when an Ymer backhand sailed wide.

“I was just really thrilled, and kind of happy I was able to get to this point,” Opelka said by phone from London. “I’m pretty happy with how I played all week, and today … there’s no way I could’ve expected this to have happened when the tournament started.”

Opelka, true to his calm demeanor, didn’t throw his racket in the air or scream, or even fall to the ground as so many champions do when they triumph on the most prestigious grounds in the sport.
He simply smiled widely, shook his racket a bit in excitement, and stared into the crowd at his parents, George and Lynne Opelka, and his coach, Diego Moyano.

It was a moment created through thousands of hours in the hot Florida sun, hitting ball after ball. A moment that never would’ve happened if Opelka hadn’t saved a match point in his first-round match on Monday.

And it was a moment that’s never been known before from a kid from Flagler County, where the Opelkas moved in 2002 when Reilly was 4.
Jay Berger, the director of men’s tennis at the USTA Training Center in Boca Raton where Opelka trains, was awfully proud of his protégé Sunday.

“We know Reilly has the ability to play extremely good tennis, and it was a lot of fun watching him do that today,” Berger said of the second consecutive Wimbledon boys champion to hail from the U.S. (New Yorker Noah Rubin won the 2014 crown). “He went for his shots and served very well, and he’s earned this win with all the work he’s put in the last few years.”

Opelka had a chance to be a two-time winner at Wimbledon this year, but in the first bit of bad news he’s had all week, he and partner Akira Santillan lost in the doubles final to Sumit Nagal and Nam Hoant Ly, 7-6, 6-4.

Still, Sunday will be a day he remembers for the rest of his life. Opelka gets to go to the Wimbledon Champions Dinner Sunday night, an exclusive affair where he can hobnob with Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic, among others.

Opelka and Roger Federer eight years ago in an image Opelka’s father George Tweeted today. Opelka has grown a bit since.

And in the locker room after his win, Opelka said he ran into one of his heroes, a guy named Roger Federer. In August of 2007, a 9-year-old Opelka got to meet Federer at a tournament in Cincinnati, and Reilly’s dad George Tweeted this picture of the two from that encounter (Reilly’s grown a tad since then).

The two met after Opelka’s win and Federer’s defeat in the men’s final in the locker room on Sunday.

“He was very kind and very gracious, even though you know he was upset that he lost,” Opelka said. “He congratulated me and was really nice to me.”

Opelka, who lived full-time in Palm Coast for eight years and went to Indian Trails Middle School until moving to Boca Raton, didn’t play his best match of the tournament Sunday against Ymer, but he played extremely well at all the right times.

From the start Opelka dictated the pace of play, smacking 41 winners and making 37 unforced errors, while Ymer, a 16-year-old who’s a foot shorter than his opponent, drilled only eight winners while making 11 errors in the 85-minute match.

Opelka, who defeated Ymer in the second round of the French Open juniors in June, had no trouble holding serve throughout the first set, rarely being threatened, but Ymer, with his howitzer of a forehand and strong serving of his own, didn’t surrender a break point chance either.

“My serve was really on today, but I wasn’t having a lot of success against his serve,” Opelka said. “When the games got tight on my serve, I was able to hit an ace or a service winner when I needed it. That was huge.”

With six straight holds of serve by each player, the first set went to a tiebreak. At 3-all Opelka made his move, tattooing a short forehand for a winner to go up 4-3, with two serves to come.
At 6-5 in the breaker, Opelka again unleashed a scorching forehand winner to take the lead, pumping his fist on his way to his chair.

“He’s got a very strong backhand and always has had a clear vision of what he wants to do out there,” said Berger, a former top pro who had been at Wimbledon all week but watched the final from his home in Florida. “He takes the racket out of his opponent’s hands if he plays like he did today.”

“The people in Palm Coast are amazing, and I’m very thankful for all their support,” Opelka said.

In the second set Opelka had a few chances to break Ymer’s serve at 1-all, but the 16-year-old Swede steeled himself and hung in.
Still, Ymer couldn’t touch Opelka’s serve, as Opelka smashed 15 aces and won 86 percent of his first-serve points.

Finally at 4-all in the second set, Opelka pounced, and Ymer cracked. An Opelka overhead at 15-30 gave him two break points that Ymer subsequently saved, but on Opelka’s third break try, Ymer double-faulted long, and suddenly Opelka was about to serve for the Wimbledon title.

“I just sat there trying to clear my head,” Opelka said when asked what he was thinking on the changeover. “I was telling myself to focus on each point, and not think about the situation.”

Unlike in his semifinal against Taylor Fritz, when Opelka wobbled while serving for the match, this time the kid whose favorite player is Juan Martin del Potro and roots hard for the NBA’s Chicago Bulls stayed clutch.

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Two aces got Opelka to 40-15, and moments later Ymer’s error gave the Palm Coast kid the championship.

This victory, naturally, puts Opelka’s career into a different category. He has never truly been considered one of the top few American junior prospects, nor given the hype of players like Frances Tiafoe, Stefan Kozlov or Fritz.

But breaking through on such a grand stage will mean increased pressure, increased attention, and increased expectations for Opelka, starting at the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows in September. And of course there’s no guarantee juniors success will translate to the pros, though Opelka has a lot going for him.
That’s all for another day, though.

Right now, Opelka can revel in a thrilling victory, and know that he’s headed back home to the USTA Training Center Boca Raton for a few days off before resuming practice.

He said his next big tournament will likely be the U.S. national championships in Kalamazoo, Mich., in the first week of August, where a win would automatically gain Opelka entry into the main draw of the men’s U.S. Open.

In the meantime, Palm Coast can take pride in having nurtured a Wimbledon champ.

Asked about it, Opelka couldn’t have been more grateful for the love he’s feeling from his hometown.

“The people in Palm Coast are amazing, and I’m very thankful for all their support,” Opelka said. “I’ve gotten a ton of messages from my old friends at Indian Trails this week. It’s been so much fun hearing how excited people are for me. I really, really appreciate it.”

–Michael J. Lewis for FlaglerLive

Hello tennis fans, and welcome to FlaglerLive’s live blog of the Wimbledon Boys singles final this morning between the unseeded 17-year-old Reilly Opelka, who grew up in Palm Coast, and 16-year-old Mikael Ymer of Sweden, whose seeded 12th.

Follow the match here as former Opelka Coach Gene Paul Lascano joins FlaglerLive’s Michael Lewis starting at 8 a.m.

We’ll be updating the blog constantly as the match goes on, with commentary and analysis, as Opelka tries for his first-ever Grand Slam championship, and tries to become the first-ever Grand Slam singles champion from Palm Coast.

The match is slated to begin at 8 a.m. Palm Coast time, pending the weather in London Sunday (rain is in the forecast). Opelka is also in the doubles final later Sunday with partner Akira Santillan. You can also watch the match live on ESPN3.com, and on the Watch ESPN app.

No need to refresh the page: the blog below will update automatically the moment Lewis and Lascano add a line. So keep it here as a local boy goes for history.