Opelka and Opening Day at the 2025 Australian Open
A wide-ranging interview with Reilly Opelka as we kick off the year's first Grand Slam.
MELBOURNE, Australia — It’s the eve of main draw play at the first Grand Slam event of the year, and captivating stories abound throughout the men’s and women’s singles draws. Even with first round play stretched out over three days because of the new Sunday start (which means play begins Saturday evening stateside), there’s a bounty of compelling characters to consider and encounter each day.
I’ve been talking to nearly as many players and other tennis figures as I can manage in my first week on site at the Australian Open, and in this post ahead of Day 1 action I’m excited to bring you one of the most in-depth and wide-ranging conversations I’ve had so far, with early 2025 season standout Reilly Opelka.
Opelka is on Sunday’s schedule here after a stunning run to the ATP 250 Brisbane final last week that included a stunning win over Novak Djokovic, handing out just the sixth loss Djokovic has suffered in his last 91 matches in Australia.
I first met Opelka nearly a decade ago when we sat together in the old Roland Garros bullring court to watch his two close buddies Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz play the 2015 French Open boys’ final. Opelka—who correctly predicted Paul’s triumph that day—got in the winner’s circle himself with his own junior title at Wimbledon a month later (followed another couple months later by Fritz winning the U.S. Open to complete a trifecta for the tight-knit trio).
Admittedly, Opelka has been both a fascinating and frustrating figure to cover in our time together on tour. As he’s grown and matured on tour, the now-27-year-old Opelka can be both teddy bear and sharp claws, and I haven’t always known which was coming on any given day. His takes on tennis are a mix of iconoclasm and idolatry that can be difficult to pin down, but it makes interviews with him a reliably entertaining ride.
I hadn’t spoken to Opelka at any length in years before our interview this week, which isn’t surprising given how long he was off the tour after hip and wrist injuries forced him off the tour in 2022, drastically derailing him just when he’d established himself in the ATP Top 20 and forcing him to seriously consider retirement.
After a long road to build back from both of those injuries, Opelka began entering events with protected rankings last year (Bounces readers may remember his appearance in my report from the Charlottesville Challenger last October).
Our conversation includes discussion of Opelka’s recovery and retooling, his work with new coach (and recent retired player) Denis Kudla, and his thoughts on top players including Jannik Sinner, Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, and Ben Shelton.
“He’s delusionally optimistic. Like, totally delusionally optimistic. He was always the guy who was unimpressed by everyone when we were coming on tour, and not scared to say it.”
-Reilly Opelka on Taylor Fritz
Opelka was his most effusive, however, about recent opponent Novak Djokovic, whom he said he “fanboyed” from afar while sidelined for years (and as Djokovic told me when I asked him about Opelka in return, the feeling is mutual).
“I get that he’s not the fan favorite…but it’s as clean-cut as it gets with the guy. He played in Roger and Rafa’s primes! I get it: he shot Bambi, we can say.”
-Reilly Opelka on Novak Djokovic
After back pain forced him to retire from the Brisbane final last week, Opelka also discussed his health prognosis to for his first round match at the Australian Open against Belgian qualifier Gauthier Onclin (who at 5-foot-11 is a full foot shorter than 6-foot-11 Opelka).
After the interview with Opelka, there are also previews of seven more first-round matches I’d recommend you watch on Day 1 action at this Australian Open.
A Programming (Thank You) Note
Before getting to the main meat of this story, though, I want to pause to welcome and thank everyone who has subscribed (and upgraded subscriptions) to Bounces this week since I arrived in Melbourne a week ago.
The pieces I’ve posted so far from on the ground here in Australia—a deep dive into the former junior standouts still trying to make it through qualifying, an interview with caught-in-the-crossfire coach Goran Ivanisevic, a fun fashion throwback trendsetter—have clearly been resonating with lots of readers, and that’s been hugely gratifying as I try to find my footing and my rhythm on Substack.
There have been busloads of new subscribers hopping over to Bounces, and I’m very excited you’re all here. Even more strikingly, the percentage of Bounces subscribers who are at a paid level of subscription has risen from ~8 percent to ~10 percent this week; that’s a much more meaningful uptick for doing business here than it might appear at first glance.
I’m eager and hopeful that both the overall numbers and that percentage can continue to grow as we progress here during the first Grand Slam tournament of Bounces’ existence, so that more of you can get to check out and enjoy the work I’m doing here in Melbourne. In my first few months here on Substack so far, my general rule of thumb for Bounces has been for roughly half of the stories to be paywalled; I think that pattern will more or less continue during the 2025 Australian Open coverage here.
“If you’re not watching Untucked, you’re only getting half the story,” a wise woman once said, and I think that same sort of promise will hold true here for the Bounces audience. Plus, you’ll get to read all the paywalled stories in the growing Bounces archive, and join the lovely conversations happening in the comments sections (which are sure to be much better than what’s out there on tennis social media lately). It should be a fun time for all here, both during the “Happy Slam” and beyond, I hope!
To keep reading this post—which stretches beyond 4,500 words—as well as continuing coverage of the 2025 Australian Open and beyond, please consider a paid subscription to Bounces. I think it will prove very worth it! -Ben
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