The United States is fostering major hopes in tennis for 2025. On one side, America’s Taylor Fritz appears as the country’s big contender for the Australian Open, while Frances Tiafoe’s consistent progress continues to impress the fraternity. Amidst this rising wave of talent, another American player is shining brightly, the 2020 Delray Beach Champion Reilly Opelka. His incredible performance in Brisbane surprised everyone and received high praise from tennis legend Andy Roddick, who raised hope Opelka’s form with his great remark.

America’s Reilly Opelka started his 2025 season in style after overpowering none other than Novak Djokovic in the Brisbane International’s quarterfinals. Given that Opelka’s history highlights his continuous physical setbacks in the last two seasons, his recent performance surprised the fraternity including former American player Andy Roddick. In his recent discussion, Roddick explained Opelka’s situation highlighting how he appears as a potential threat for Melbourne.

In his ‘Served‘ podcast, Roddick was asked by Jon Wertheim if he had faced a similar situation like Opelka where his physical injuries forced him to think of retirement. In his response, Roddick first confessed that his situation wasn’t like Opelka’s. However, he had to withdraw from the Italian Open’s semifinals once because of an issue with the front of his shoulder. Roddick then revealed that this problem wasn’t solved through surgery and he lost 10% of his serve’s fastball and changed his forehand’s swing path. In a nutshell, the legend explained how hard it was for him to come to a winning position from that setback. Reflecting on this, Roddick praised Opelka and spoke about his potential in this season.

“I promise you man no one wants to play him, no one wanted to play him and no one wants to play him now, he is exciting. No, not not a single person. He’s probably the biggest number one thing where top player is going, ‘no don’t want him any part of him the first 3 rounds of the Australian Open’. Now that being said we haven’t tested fitness and best of 5 if he gets to our 4th set that’s a lot different the wind is going to be different in Melbourne,” said Roddick.

Sep 2, 2021; Flushing, NY, USA; Reilly Opelka of the United States returns a shot against Lorenzo Musetti of Italy in a second round match on day four of the 2021 U.S. Open tennis tournament at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports

Unfortunately, Opelka’s last two seasons were all about his struggles with wrist and hip injuries. Despite reaching a career-high ranking of 17 in 2022, Opelka realized how unbearable his hip problem was only six months after the milestone. On the 2022 US Open‘s opening day, this American player went through surgery to remove a benign tumor and a wrist surgery afterward that dismantled his hope to return to tour in 2023 with the Delray Beach Championship. Among two of his surgeries, the first one didn’t go well and Opelka confirmed how a “bad surgeon” performed poorly leaving him with more nerve-related problems and pain.

Despite setbacks, Opelka returned to the court and impressed everyone with a victory against the former ATP number one. Serena Williams’ former coach Rennae Stubbs praised him. He also reached the tournament’s finals before losing the title to Jiri Lehecka following a walkover due to his back injury. His recent performance hypes up his game highlighting him as a player who could shake things up for top-ranked players in the Australian Open this season.

Reilly Opelka might dominate the 2025 Australian Open

Interestingly, Reilly Opelka performed great throughout Brisbane International. He defeated Matteo Arnaldi by 7(11)- 6(9) and 7(7)- 6(4) in the Round of 16. This American ATP star defeated the Serb by 7(8)-6(6), and 6-3 in a one-hour thirty-nine minutes clash in the Pat Rafter Arena. After that, he overpowered Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in the semifinals with a ravishing score of 6-3 and 7(7)-6(4).  But despite reaching the finals he could not fight against Jiri Lehecka properly due to his back injury.

Despite recent setbacks, Opelka’s height offers him a great benefit. As a 6ft 11 inches tall, he beat fellow 6 footer John Isner in a 24-22 second-set tiebreaker in the 2022 Dallas Open. Opelka won the 46 point tie-breaker – the longest in the ATP history and reached the tournament’s finals. BBC wrote, “Opelka, who stands 6ft 11in, finally converted his eighth match point after a run of 26 straight points on serve,” highlighting how his incredible stature helped him get leverage in service.

Reilly Opelka might have walkd out of the court in pain in Brisbane but that doesn’t mean he is not a potential threat for the other players this season. His incredible performances against Novak Djokovic, and Matteo Arnaldi in the Brisbane International highlights what a skilled player he is. Now it is time to see if he can continue to perform the same magic in the upcoming tournaments.