According to the Associated Press on Thursday, Reilly Opelka of St. Joseph, Michigan has withdrawn from the 2023 Australian Open. Even though no official reason was given, Opelka was dealing with injuries to his hip and ankle in the 2022 ATP season.
Opelka is currently ranked 38th in the world. At 6’11”, he is tied with Ivo Karlovic of Croatia as the tallest player in ATP history.
In 2022, Opelka had a record of 21 wins and 15 losses. He won two ATP tournaments. The first title came in Dallas where he beat fellow American Jenson Brooksby of Sacramento, California 7-6, 7-6 on February 13. The second title came in Houston, where he beat fellow American giant John Isner of Greensboro, North Carolina 6-3, 7-6 on April 10. Isner, who is 6’10”, is a grand slam semifinalist as he reached the final four in Wimbledon in 2018. It should be noted that Brooksby is significantly tall as well at 6’4″. Opelka’s other two ATP titles came at the 2019 New York Open where he beat Brayden Schnurr of Canada in the final 6-1, 6-7, 7-6, and the 2020 Delray Beach Open in Florida, where he beat Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan 7-5, 6-7, 6-2 in the final.
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Opelka’s last tournament was in Washington the first week of August. He lost 7-6, 6-2 to Australia’s Nick Kyrgios in the third round. Kyrgios went on to win the 2022 Citi Open where he beat Nishioka in the final, 6-4, 6-3.
With the withdrawal of Opelka, Zhizhen Zhang of China, the 99th ranked player in the world, enters the Australian Open draw. Zhang has not yet won a match in a grand slam singles tournament.
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