The American Reilly Opelkaauthor of 39 aces, won with a score of 24-22 on Saturday the longest tie-break in the history of the ATP Tour since 1990, and his match against John Isner at the Dallas Open.
This victory, with a score of 7-6 (9/7), 7-6 (24/22) between two great servers, came after a series of 26 points scored on their service by one or other of the two players. It was on the eighth match point for Opelka, seeded N.2 in the tournament.
“I lost the thread,” smiled Opelka about this legendary tie-break. “At one point, it was 21 everywhere. I had never seen that, but if it had to happen one day, it was necessarily in this match”.
Isner, 36, seeded N.3, managed only 21 aces, almost half as many as Opelka, and like his opponent, he never had a break point to save. He got ten set points in the extended second-set tiebreak, but Opelka held on until the end.
Opelka, 24, is now nine tie-breaks won out of twelve played against his eldest, and four wins to one, because Isner had won their first meeting, in 2016 in Atlanta. The N.26 in the ATP ranking also won the longest tennis match of all time, an eleven-hour marathon, spread over three days, in 2010 at Wimbledon against Frenchman Nicolas Mahut (70 games to 68 in the fifth set) .
Opelka, 23rd player in the world, will aim for a third title on the circuit on Sunday against another American, Jenson Brooksby, who beat Marcos Giron in three sets. 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/5). “I love watching him play, but I hate playing against him“, he announced.
This is the first time since the San José tournament in 2004, won by Andy Roddick, that four American players have monopolized places in the semi-finals of an ATP tournament.
