John McEnroe’s Brother’s Vital Role in Propelling Reilly Opelka to the Very Top of American Tennis Unveiled in an Endearing Confession

It is not often that a 6 foot 11 inches tall man sits down to tell you his story. Tennis’ only giant, Reilly Opelka, recently appeared in an episode of The Driven Athlete’s Podcast. Reilly shed light on many aspects of his life in and out of tennis. However, his statement about Patrick McEnroe intrigued the listeners most.

For those of you who don’t know, Patrick is John McEnroe’s younger brother. Both the brothers made quite a name for themselves in the world of tennis. And Reilly, in this podcast, tried to show Patrick’s smartness outside of the court.

Reilly Opelka tells his story 

Reilly started by telling how he moved to South Florida to train at the age of 13. During those times, a lot of things were changing. He says: “You know, they bring in like three or four of the best kids from each part of the, I mean, for every all parts of the country, but each year, you get three kids. So I was born in 97. So we were the youngest at the time.”

He soon mentioned: “And that was a new program that Patrick McEnroe, John McEnroe’s brother had created. So he just said, “I want to get the three best kids from each year. And I want to give them the best resources we can give them and build a good training environment and invest in the future”, as opposed to like a current talent.” Concluding from what he heard, it sounded like a great strategy to Reilly.

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Reilly spoke about how “It took a long time to see results…but that program was special.” The time spent was too much, and after Patrick had invested so much in this program, he still couldn’t keep it alive for long.

Was the program a success or failure?

According to Reilly, the program just needed more time to succeed. Even though the results were low on time, Opelka firmly believes that it could’ve been a huge success. 

Opelka also highlights how Patrick was mocked since only a select few could make it into the top 100. However, he continues his stance that if people had waited, more players would have climbed the ranks. 

It looks like Patrick McEnroe was definitely onto something. He knew he had to start from the beginning in order to get the best of athletes. It’s a shame his program didn’t stay for a few more years.

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