Reilly Opelka is facing disciplinary action a bit too often this season and for strange reasons. Remember the Dallas Open where hecklers distracted him? Well, Opelka faced a point penalty there. Why, you ask? We will get to that in a bit, but the 6’11” American pro had another bizarre experience at Indian Wells recently where he had $80,000 swept away from his bank account as fine. The revelation came to light after his Miami Open R64 match against Holger Rune on Saturday.

Opelka managed to topple Holger Rune in a three-setter by 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) and advanced to the third round in Florida. But before the match concluded, something controversial happened. In the final set, when both players were competing in the tie-break, with Rune leading 2-1, Opelka hit a backhand that went past the Dane as he failed to return and the tie-break was subsequently leveled 2-2.

However, Rune was left frustrated as he immediately went toward the chair umpire. Trying to catch his breath, the Dane told him that he got distracted by the lights turning on in the middle of the point. The chair umpire then took a video review and it was found that there was, in fact, no hindrance caused. And the match continued like normal afterward. But Opelka spoke in favor of his opponent after the match, stressing that Rune’s concern was understandable.

“I don’t know. It was valid. If the lights bug him, they bug him. I don’t think he’s making anything up. He played within the rules to do the video review. There was no foul play on his side,” the American remarked.

Opelka then revealed how he wasn’t so lucky to get away when he raised objections about the lighting at the Indian Wells. “If that were me I probably would’ve been fined another 80 G’s like I did last week at Indian Wells,” the 27-year-old said. Explaining further, he added, “They (officials) couldn’t figure out how to turn on the lights. I asked for them. And then boom, I got slapped with a nice fine. So I’m playing for free this week.” 

But hey, it’s not the first time Opelka has expressed his disappointment over umpiring decisions. He has done it before. And guess what? He paid the price for it as well in Dallas earlier in the season.

When Reilly Opelka called out the ‘worst ump on the tour’

Reilly Opelka faced British pro-Cameron Norrie in R16 of the Dallas Open last month. After a poor showing in the Australian Open where he got eliminated from the second round, losing to Tomas Machac in five sets, the American was looking to bounce back. However, against Norrie, he went a set down inviting further pressure.

The tall American bounced back though in an impressive fashion in the next two sets. However, when he was serving for the match, at 5-4 in the decider, he lost his focus due to hecklers in the stands. He apparently told them to leave, but ended up using expletives in the process. The outburst eventually resulted in the chair umpire Greg Allensworth slapping him with a code violation and point penalty.

Already frustrated, Opelka immediately asked the chair umpire for a justification for his decision. The controversy even brought the tournament supervisor into this matter. However, the decision remained unchanged. Instead of going 30-all, the 27-year-old faced a break point at 30-40. But he managed to save it to emerge victorious.

After the match, Opelka lashed out at the chair umpire in an interview with Cheryl Murray, a tennis journalist from The Grandstand. “Greg Allensworth was the worst ref in the ATP. Like we were talking about it in the locker room. Players literally are a coincidence, but two days ago definitely like the worst ump on the tour. And I was like oh no doubt, he’s real bad. He almost changed the outcome of that match because you know he doesn’t know what he doing and he got emotional like when we were arguing. He got very intense and frantic, like couldn’t give me an answer like you didn’t tell that guy to shut up,” he said.

Continuing further he added, “He didn’t do his job so I had to get out of here guys being pretty quite rude. I am all for whatever, but if you want to come here and be an A—— then I am gonna be one back. It shouldn’t have been one-sided traffic, but if you wanna be disrespectful to me, I can just be a punching bag and then the ref isn’t doing his job and then he penalises me. Not a good look. He almost changed the outcome of the match big point…Hope the ATP penalises him”

Coming back to his campaign in Miami, Opelka will now face Czechia’s Tomas Machac in R3. Machac is leading the h2h tally 1-0 thanks to his victory in their last meeting at the Australian Open. Do you think Opelka will be able to avenge that loss? Let us know in the comments below.