Nadal, however, has little time for numbers. When he won his historic second title at Melbourne Park, he spoke not of edging ahead of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in the race to be crowned the most successful male player of all time, but of the good fortune he felt at achieving “one more very special thing in my tennis career”. Here, when he was asked if he was happy to have advanced in straight sets against Opelka, he simply replied: “Happy to win. Doesn’t matter how many sets.” As for the announcement that a 10-point tiebreak is to be introduced at six-all in the deciding set of all four majors, he could barely have been less interested.

“I don’t care much, honestly,” said Nadal, the fourth seed and highest-ranked player remaining in the draw. “I honestly don’t have a clear opinion. I am not in favour and not against. I think that’s what they decided. Happy with it or not? I don’t care. I don’t think it’s going to make a big difference.”

What does make a difference to Nadal is the here and now. The challenge before him at any given moment, not the significance others might attach to it – that is what fuels the Spaniard’s fire. From Federer and Djokovic at their peak to the litany of injuries that has blighted his career, Nadal is all about solving problems, making adjustments, finding a way.

So it was on Wednesday, when the here and now took the imposing form of the 6ft 11in Opelka, the 17th seed. There are few secrets where Opelka is concerned. The American’s 140mph-plus serve is frequently unreturnable. His forehand is immense. It is a combination that puts pressure on his opponents to serve well while accepting that rhythm – and returns – will be at a premium. It meant Nadal had to walk a tactical tightrope. 

“I tried to play with a high percentage of first serves, especially in the tiebreaks,” said Nadal, “because then if you start to miss first serves, you open the door for him to go for a big return. It is not in your hands any more. Try to put balls in on the return. Find the right balance between not playing too aggressive, because then you risk mistakes, and not playing too defensively, because you know he has a great forehand and he going to go for the winner.”

It was a plan Nadal executed to near perfection in what he described afterwards as his best match of the tournament. The only blight on his afternoon’s work, beyond a second-set break that was swiftly retrieved, was a hint of discomfort from the chronic foot problem that forced him to miss almost the entire second half of last season.

“I felt my foot a little bit on the second set. I was able to keep going, keep running till the end, no?” said Nadal, who has pulled out of next week’s Miami Open. “Today was a little bit worse than the other days. It’s true that for the last couple of days, the foot has been bothering me a little bit more. [It’s] something that can happen. We know that. [I’m] just trying to be ready and stay positive, because [this is] going to be my last tournament on hard. After, we going to go back to clay. That probably helps a little bit more.”

A more immediate concern will be Nick Kyrgios, whom Nadal will face in the quarter-finals following Jannik Sinner’s withdrawal from the tournament with illness.

The post Nadal solves Opelka puzzle to progress in Indian Wells appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Not that Reilly Opelka was laughing. Facing fellow American Maxime Cressy for a place in the last eight of the Melbourne Summer Set, Opelka found himself on the receiving end of an unwanted deposit from a passing bird.

“Sorry, I just got shit on,” said Opelka, bearing his soiled cap gingerly in one hand as he walked to the chair with Cressy serving at 4-4 in the second set.

Greeted by a quizzical look from the chair umpire, the second seed, whose shaggy mane means appropriate headgear is a must, ventured an explanation in his customary temperate manner.

“I can’t fucking see, a bird shit on me,” said Opelka, delving into his bag for a replacement. “What do you want me to do?”

But as the hirsute world No 26 produced a fresh cap, the umpire cried foul, insisting the logo contravened ATP rules. “Just ask your coach to give you one, the one he has on his head,” he suggested helpfully.

Ever a faithful adherent to the principles of brand loyalty, Opelka pointed out that he was not about to sport headwear produced by anyone other than his clothing sponsor – whereupon the obliging official offered to clean the cap for him.

“I don’t really want to play with shit on my head,” said Opelka, not unreasonably.

Every avenue was explored. Could the American not use a towel to clear up the mess, the umpire wondered? “You’re ridiculous,” Opelka shot back. How about trying the one offered by Diego the ballboy? Too small.

Opelka eventually decided to take matters into his own hands, returning to the court with the be-logoed cap. Cue a decisive intervention from the match official, who – braving the danger overhead – ventured on to the arena to offer the American an official tournament hat pending the retrieval of a more suitable alternative from Opelka’s locker.

To compound Opelka’s misery, he was beaten 4-6, 7-6( 7-5), 7-6 (11-9) after twice holding a match point. A feather in the cap for the 112th-ranked Cressy, one might say.

The post ‘I can’t play with shit on my head’: Opelka beaten in Melbourne appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

“It’s special when you play for more than just yourself, everyone would agree with that assessment,” said John Isner on the eve of the event, as he looked ahead to Team World’s prospects of claiming a first victory in a tournament that has become tennis’s answer to the Ryder Cup.

But it’s one thing to talk about camaraderie, quite another to demonstrate it.

While Isner and Nick Kyrgios, Laver Cup veterans both, spoke earnestly and eloquently of the special appeal of a team event in what is, for the most part, an unrelentingly individual sport, their Team Europe counterparts channelled a more relaxed and jovial vibe. Andrey Rublev had not even started answering his first question before he dissolved into laugher. “They are making fun of me,” he smiled, looking down the table at his team-mates. Bjorn Borg joked about relations between his native Sweden and Casper Ruud’s Norway. And when one questioner cut out after offering greetings from the Novak Djokovic Tennis Centre in Belgrade, Daniil Medvedev quipped, “Novak has to work on the Wi-Fi in his centre”, before suggesting that he wouldn’t be playing doubles because “I’m not really good.”

It helps that Team Europe has six of the world’s top-10 players. An unbeaten record in the Laver Cup also goes a long way towards alleviating any sense of pressure. And, of course, you might expect a side captained by John McEnroe and spearheaded by Nick Kyrgios to have a certain brooding intensity relative to a team led by Borg, the serene Swede they once called the ice man of tennis. 

The real proof of unity comes on court, however – and there too Team Europe had the edge. The opening match pitted a pair of Laver Cup debutants against one another, the 10th-ranked Ruud taking on Reilly Opelka, the world No 19. With the big-serving Opelka struggling to make his power tell in what he later called “the slowest conditions I’ve ever played in”, Ruud’s superior consistency proved decisive, the Norwegian seizing an early break to lay the foundations for a 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) victory. 

So how was it, Opelka was asked afterwards, having the likes of McEnroe and Kyrgios in his corner? Nice, replied the American, who said he could see how McEnroe’s competitive spirit and positivity once made him such a great player. Then came the killer caveat: “At the end of the day, I’ve played 20 weeks this year – I know my game the best, I have the best feel for what’s going on out there.”

Asked a similar question, Ruud offered a significantly warmer response. “Borg is one of the first real legends, and to have him on the bench is incredible, it’s been a dream of mine,” said the Norwegian, the beneficiary of some animated tactical advice from Alexander Zverev midway through the second set. “It’s a great feeling, I have great team-mates. It’s a really fun experience.”

The entertainment factor was ramped up further when Roger Federer, the event’s godfather, appeared in the stands early in the first set. It says something about the stature of a player when he receives the loudest cheer of the night without actually picking up a racket, but such is the status of the Swiss, who is convalescing after his latest bout of knee surgery. “The crowd was going crazy, it gave me chills,” said Ruud. “The hair was rising on my arms.”

The Team World challenge looked to be on a similarly upward trajectory when Felix Auger-Aliassime took the opening set against Matteo Berrettini. Full of confidence after his run to the US Open semi-finals, the 11th-ranked Canadian looked poised to repeat his recent victory over Berrettini in Cincinnati when he led 7-5 in the match tiebreak, only for the Italian to complete his recovery with a 6-7 (3-7), 7-5, 10-8 victory. 

One for the team, perhaps, Matteo? “I felt a different energy,” said Berrettini after a contest that, at two hours and 52 minutes, was the longest in the competition’s short history. “I was playing for my team, not just for myself. It felt great, and they helped me a lot.”

In another thrilling finish, Rublev recovered from 6-2 in the match tiebreak against Diego Schwartzman to give Team Europe a 3-0 lead. Schwartzman stood within two points of the match at 8-5, before Rublev clawed his way back to 9-8. The Russian squandered the match point with a double fault, but he recovered to win a lung-busting 24-shot rally on his second, slotting away a forehand volley to complete a 4-6, 6-3, 11-9 win. 

Team World belatedly got a point on the board when Isner and Denis Shapovalov beat Berrettini and Alexander Zverev 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 10-1 in the doubles. Given the format of the competition, which sees two points awarded for a win on the second day, and three on the final day, there is still plenty to play for.  

“I think we’ve got a great team spirit,” said McEnroe, who will be eager to harness the support of the home crowd on day two. “But we’ve got to step up.”

The post The team’s the thing as Laver Cup gets underway appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

It was a virtually flawless display from the world No 2. Opelka tried everything, and did very little wrong, but Medvedev had all the answers. The challenge facing the 32nd-ranked Opelka was apparent from the outset. When he thundered down his 140mph-plus serves and stayed back, he was frequently outrallied; when he came in behind slower, kicked deliveries, he was frequently passed. When the American tried a different tack, moving forward behind the forehand instead of his serve, the result was the same, the man from Michigan skewered by the lethal precision of his opponent’s passing shots.

Medvedev, who set up camp even deeper behind the baseline than normal, returned with a venom and consistency entirely alien to his big-serving opponent. Opelka is not used to seeing his huge bombs returned consistently, let alone with interest. Medvedev, who had got his eye in against another player in the Opelka mould with his emphatic semi-victory over John Isner, made just 13 unforced errors, his steadiness from the back forcing the American to press ever harder. The pressure on his opponent was incessant and intolerable. Opelka, who made 34 unforced errors in all, had held his serve throughout three long sets against Stefanos Tsitsipas; here, the first of three dropped service games came as early as the fifth game. 

By then, Opelka’s best chance of making a match of it had come and gone. He held three consecutive break points in the fourth game, but hammered a forehand into the net on the first, was denied by a deep first serve on the second, and pushed a forehand long on the third. Three minutes later, he was behind, Medvedev capitalising on a double fault and an errant forehand with a backhand pass of pinpoint accuracy. It was all Medvedev needed to seal the set and the Russian soon extended his lead, an Opelka double fault handing him an early break in the second set. Poor decision-making cost the American a chance to get back on level terms in the sixth game, Opelka opting for a drop shot with the court at his mercy, and from there Medvedev was always in control, his fourth Masters title never in doubt.

“When you play Reilly, I think the biggest factor is how you serve and how you return,” said Medvedev, who would displace Djokovic as world No 1 were he to win the US Open. “My serve was not on top point today. That’s why I had breakpoints to save. That’s why it was sometimes close calls on my serve. But I was very good on return. I managed to put pressure on him almost non-stop. I think he didn’t almost have maybe one or two easy games in the match. That’s what made the difference.”

For Opelka, a first appearance in a Masters 1000 final offers further evidence of progress as well as the comfort of an improved ranking that will earn him a seeding at the US Open. He was sanguine in defeat, recognising that there was little he could have done to alter the trajectory of the contest with Medvedev in such imperious form. 

“He was flawless,” said Opelka. “I had one chance to break early. I don’t think that would have changed much because he was in so many of my service games. It was a little windy and a little bit swirlier out there on the ball, so it was really tough to be powerful and be consistently powerful. But even then, even when I hit some big shots, he countered well and it was very tough to disrupt him at all. He’s very good with his open-stance backhand, very good on the run, his passing shots are great. All expected, but he really executed well.”

The post Medvedev cruises past Opelka to win Toronto Masters title appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Perhaps the more pertinent question was why Opelka, who beat Tsitsipas 6-7 (2-7), 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 to reach his maiden Masters 1000 final, ventured the opinion in the first place. Maybe he was trying to heap further pressure on an opponent he knew would be fancied to win. Maybe he was trying to lull Tsitsipas into a false sense of security with an exaggerated show of deference. Or perhaps the answer really was contained in the single line – a 1? – that Opelka scrawled on a TV camera afterwards.

Whatever the answer, this was a richly deserved victory for the 23-year-old, who not only held serve throughout but also showcased the less obvious qualities – sharp movement, power and resilience from the baseline, an eye for a volley – that have underpinned his success this year. This was Opelka’s first win over a top-five opponent, and his ranking will now rise from his current position of No 32, ensuring he achieves his goal of being seeded at the US Open. No one will want to see his name in their quarter of the draw at Flushing Meadows.

Opelka, who had talked up Tsitsipas as having the best forehand in the game ahead of the match, hit almost twice as many winners off that wing as the Greek – 21 to 11 – as he racked up a total of 46 unreturnable shots, 27 of which were groundstrokes. As implied by his self-deprecating decision to sign a TV camera “servebot” after his quarter-final win over Roberto Bautista Agut, the 6ft 11in powerhouse is more than just a big serve.

“I think it was just an accumulation of pressure put on him,” said Opelka of his decisive breakthrough in the final set. “I think he felt that, you know, I was serving well, was winning points in a lot of different ways on my serve. Even when he hit some good returns, I would crush some forehands, or I came up with some good volleys.

“I think I was winning so many points, with so many different ways and different shots, that the pressure just kind of stayed on him. That game I broke, I didn’t do anything special necessarily. I put in some good returns, but I think I got a double fault, I got the first ball, that shank backhand he hadn’t missed all match … maybe it was just a fluke game, but I’d like to think that it was pressure I put on him with holding so easily the whole match.”

Opportunities against the serve were few and far between throughout. With Tsitsipas barely able to put a return in court initially, the first opportunity to make inroads against the serve fell Opelka’s way. In the third game, a scorching backhand winner brought up two break points for the American. But Opelka hooked a forehand fractionally wide on the first, and on the second Tsitsipas snuffed out the danger with a kick serve that threatened to drag his opponent into the front-row seating. 

There would not be another break point until the fourth game of the second set. By that time, Tsitsipas had long since retreated fully five metres behind the baseline to return. It was a strategy that reaped dividends in the first-set tiebreak, where the fine margins by which the match would be decided became crystal clear. At 1-1, Opelka swatted a high forehand volley long to concede a mini-break, and in the blink of an eye he was staring at a 4-1 deficit. It was not an advantage that Tsitsipas was about to relinquish, and he concluded the breaker in clinical fashion, sealing the set with an ace. 

“He definitely improved his returning,” said Opelka. “You can just tell how his mind works so efficiently. He came out not really putting a return in play, and also he wasn’t hitting them that clean on the racket. Come five all in the first set, a lot of balls start coming back and then that stayed. He had to adjust. You can see. You know he’s a thinker and you know he’s sharp, he’s got a high tennis IQ. So it was expected. But that’s what separates him, that’s why he’s elite; it separates him from the rest of the pack.”

When Tsitsipas saved a break point early in the second set with a forehand that brushed the net tape, only moments after receiving a warning for coaching, it began to look as though it might be his day. But a disastrously ill-timed double fault handed Opelka a 6-4 lead in the second-set tiebreak, and Tsitsipas promptly framed a backhand, flinging his racket to the ground in fury.

Chances were once again at a premium in the decider, where Tsitsipas saw his only break point of the match saved by an Opelka volley before faltering in the next game to fall behind irrevocably.

“When you get no rhythm, it’s kind of difficult,” said Tsitsipas. “It kind of ruins your game very silently, very slow. The main factor there is just to forget all that, and just play. That’s how most of these guys win. It’s not that I was scared or afraid of [doing that]. It’s just I was missing shots in the rallies. I was missing experience from the baseline rallies that could have [given me] better understanding of how to play and where to play. I had very few of those opportunities, and it kind of cost me at the end.”

Opelka will face Daniil Medvedev, the top seed, in Sunday’s final. The Russian played near-flawless tennis to defeat a below-par John Isner 6-2, 6-2 in just 54 minutes.

The post Opelka upsets Tsitsipas to set up Medvedev final in Toronto appeared first on Love Game Tennis.