Reilly Opelka and John Isner have played their fair share of tie-breaks, but they’ve never been involved in one like this.
In the longest tie-break in a tour-level match since the start of the ATP Tour in 1990, Opelka won a 24-22 marathon to edge his compatriot on Saturday in the Dallas Open semi-finals. On his eighth match point, Opelka’s mini-break ended a run of 26 straight points on serve. Prior to that, he saved 10 set points on his way to a thrilling 7-6(7), 7-6(22) victory.
“I lost track,” Opelka said when asked to describe the tie-break, referring to the unprecedented seven changes of end. “At one point it was 21-all… that’s something I’ve never seen before, but if it was going to happen, it certainly would have been in this match.
“It just shows how clutch he is,” he said of Isner’s effort. “I had some house money being up a set. He didn’t, and he hit some unbelievable spots on his serve down match point.”
Opelka moves on to his fourth tour-level final with the win. The Americans have now played 12 consecutive tie-break sets in their ATP Head2Head series, with Opelka winning their past four meetings to improve to 4-1 in the matchup. There have been no breaks of serve in their past 98 games.
A truly insane tie-break to end this clash 😮 @ReillyOpelka saves 🔟 set points before ousting Isner 7-6(7) 7-6(22) to reach the final in Dallas.#DALOpen pic.twitter.com/z6Ca7n4rz3
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) February 13, 2022
Opelka fired 39 aces in the match, just shy of the record of 45 in a best-of-three match, and has still not faced a break point in Dallas. Isner tallied 21 aces and both men won more than 85 per cent of their first-serve points in a match that did not see a break point.
The marathon tie-break was eventful throughout. Early on it produced a stretch of five points that saw four mini-breaks. They again traded mini-breaks from 8-8, as both men came up with backhand passes and Opelka saved a set point on the return. From there, it all went the way of the server until Opelka claimed a historic win with another backhand pass, ending what he called “a second-set breaker that felt like a third and fourth set.”
Head2Head @ReillyOpelka vs @JohnIsner
2022 @DALOpenTennis SF: Opelka 7-6(7) 7-6(22)
2019 @ATLOpenTennis 2R: Opelka 7-6(2) 6-7(5) 7-6(5)
2019 NY Open SF: Opelka 6-7(8) 7-6(14) 7-6(4)
2019 @AustralianOpen 1R: Opelka 7-6(4) 7-6(6) 6-7(4) 7-6(5)
2016 Atlanta SF: Isner 6-7(5) 6-4 6-2 https://t.co/Uwydg3iaxw— ATP Media Info (@ATPMediaInfo) February 13, 2022
Opelka now awaits the winner of the day’s second semi-final between Jenson Brooksby and Marcos Giron — a match he plans to watch.
“Brooksby is one of my favourite players to watch, probably my least favorite player to play,” Opelka previewed. “Giron is a great player as well. Hes worked extremely hard to get where he’s at.”
Source Tennis – ATP World Tour
