Palm Coast’s Opelka Is Having Career Week in Rome, and Faces Rafael Nadal Saturday Morning

Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic were gleams in his eyes, so far away from reality then.

But Saturday, the kid who’s literally all grown up will finally get to face one of his sport’s legendary “Big 3.”

The former Indian Trails Middle School student is in the midst of a career week at the Italian Open in Rome, reaching the semifinals of a Masters 1000 event (the biggest tournaments outside of the four Grand Slams) for the first time.

And Saturday at approximately 8 a.m. Eastern time, live on Tennis Channel and TennisChannel.com, he’ll face the 20-time Slam champion Nadal in a tournament for the first time.

“Rafa Nadal is brutal. It will be a good test against the greatest player of all time,” Opelka said in his press conference after Friday’s quarterfinal win over Federico Delbonis, 7-5, 7-6. “But I’m really pleased (to get this far). We have been working hard. I made some adjustments on my game. It’s nice to see them come into play.”

To say this week’s results are stunning is an understatement.

Opelka has struggled mightily on the court in 2021, entering the Italian Open on a six-match losing streak. He also had only won two career ATP Tour-level matches on clay; he’s doubled that this week with four victories so far, and risen to No. 35 in the ATP world rankings.




“I am surprised. Clay is not really my thing,” Opelka said in his post-match interview. “[It is] not much of an American thing. It is probably just a fluke, but I’ll run with it.”

As if the losing streak wasn’t tough enough, following a first-round loss at the Miami Open in April, he contracted Covid-19, which knocked him out physically and off the court for three weeks.

In an interview this week in Rome with ATPTour.com’s Andrew Eichenholz, Opelka talked about the symptoms that threw his body into turmoil, including “really bad heartburn.”

“It was keeping me up at night and I was shivering. The heartburn would get bad whenever I would lay down or even sit down. I literally spent the entire first night in my backyard doing laps around my pool in sweatpants and it was super hot out,” Opelka said. “I had to walk in order for the heartburn not to be there. It was there for two or three days and I had only had heartburn once or twice before… It was really weird and then I was throwing up and then I did have a really bad fever and aches and headache and stuff.”

Obviously, having to quarantine even as he was feeling better was difficult.

It was kind of like getting kicked when you’re down,” Opelka told Eichenholz. “To be in a dark place with my tennis as it was after a tough loss in Miami, a bunch of tough losses, the one thing I wanted to do was get back out there and work.”

But this week in Rome, one of Opelka’s favorite cities in the world because of its arts and culture (he’s a huge fan of art museums), he’s looked like the player many have predicted to be a future Top 10 talent.




He has breezed through his first four wins without dropping serve, and without dropping a set, and only playing two tiebreakers, normally a staple of the huge-serving 23-year-old’s matches.

Nadal, who has had a much tougher road to the semis than Opelka, briefly spoke about his 7-foot opponent after his quarterfinal win over Alexander Zverev.

“It’s almost impossible to return his serve. Tough matchup.”

Regardless of the outcome of today’s match, facing Nadal is yet another step forward in Opelka’s career, as he prepares to play the French Open at Roland Garros in two weeks.

Plus, there’s no better way to test yourself on clay than to face the greatest player ever on the surface, and maybe the greatest to ever hold a racket.