Reilly Opelka came out of top again Wednesday in the latest renewal of tennis’ (literally) biggest rivalry.
FILE PHOTO: Jul 5, 2019; London, United Kingdom; Milos Raonic (CAN) in action during his match against Reilly Opelka (USA) on day five at the All England Lawn and Croquet Club. Mandatory Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports/File Photo
Opelka, a 6-foot-11 Michigan native, defeated top-seeded John Isner, a 6-foot-10 North Carolina native, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5) in the second round of the BB&T Atlanta Open.
All three matchups between the players this year have gone to Opelka after Isner won their only previous meeting.
The Wednesday match featured no service breaks and only five break points. Opelka couldn’t take advantage of two break points in the first game of the second set, and Isner came up short on three break points at 5-5 in the third set.
Isner hit 33 aces to Opelka’s 31.
Next up for Opelka is a quarterfinal match against Great Britain’s Daniel Evans, who beat Moldova’s Radu Albot, the sixth seed, 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-2.
Another quarterfinal will feature Australian teen Alexei Popyrin and Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie. Popyrin upset fourth-seeded Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert 7-5, 6-3, and Norrie ousted South Korean Soonwoo Kwon 6-3, 6-4.
Hamburg European Open
Top-seeded Dominic Thiem of Austria cruised into the quarterfinals in Hamburg, Germany, beating Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics 7-5, 6-1.
Thiem won 26 of 28 first-serve points in the 96-minute victory. His next opponent will be Russia’s Andrey Rublev, who topped Norway’s Casper Ruud 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili, the fourth seed and reigning event champion, produced a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win over Argentina’s Juan Ignacio Londero. His quarterfinal foe will be Jeremy Chardy, who beat fellow Frenchman Richard Gasquet 7-6 (5), 7-5.
J. Safra Sarasin Swiss Open Gstaad
Albert Ramos-Vinolas closed in on completing an unusual two-week double after upsetting second-seeded Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 7-6 (4) in an all-Spanish second-round match at Gstaad, Switzerland.
Vinolas next will oppose sixth-seeded Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain, who beat Italy’s Stefano Travaglia 6-2, 6-4.
Last week in the Swedish Open at Bastad, Ramos-Vinolas eliminated second-seeded Verdasco in the second round before beating Carballes Baena in the quarterfinals. Argentina’s Juan Ignacio Londero eliminated Ramos-Vinolas in the Bastad semifinals.
The other second-round winners in Gstaad were Thomas Fabbiano, who defeated a fellow Italian and fourth-seeded Lorenzo Sonego 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-1, and Germany’s Cedrik-Marcel Stebe, who got past the Czech Republic’s Jiri Vesely 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-3.
—Field Level Media