American Teen Opelka Captures Wimbledon Boys Singles Title

July 13, 2015 | By New York Tennis Magazine Staff
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Seventeen-year old Reilly Opelka of Palm Coast, Fla. won the Wimbledon boys singles title on Sunday, defeating number 12 Elias Ymer of Sweden, 7-6(5), 6-4, at the All England Club in London, the latest accomplishment in a summer of superlatives for U.S. junior boys.

Opelka, who stands 6-foot-11 and trains with coach Diego Moyano out of the USTA Training Center in Boca Raton, Fla., is the second consecutive American to win a Grand Slam boys singles title, after Tommy Paul won the French Open junior championship in June. Two different American boys have won consecutive junior Grand Slam titles only one other time in history, when John McEnroe and Van Winitsky won the French Open and Wimbledon, respectively, in 1977 (Winitsky also won the U.S. Open boys title later that summer).

The U.S. was guaranteed a boys finalist at Wimbledon, after Opelka and top-seeded Taylor Fritz met in the semifinals, with Opelka winning, 6-3, 7-6(13). Three of the French Open boys semifinalists this year were also American–Paul, Fritz and Michael Mmoh–and Paul edged Fritz in the first-ever all-American French Open boys singles final. Fritz then earned the International Tennis Federation’s number one world junior ranking the next week, becoming the first American to hold the world’s top boys’ ranking in nearly 10 years.

“This is a very encouraging sign for the future of American men’s tennis,” said USTA Player Development General Manager Martin Blackman. “Reilly, of course, deserves congratulations for the hard work and dedication that led to an incredible achievement this week at Wimbledon, but I’m also very pleased to see the whole group of American juniors playing well and pushing each other."

Opelka, who officially turned pro in April, is also the second consecutive American to join the likes of Roger Federer, Stefan Edberg and Bjorn Borg as Wimbledon boys champions, after Noah Rubin won the 2014 Wimbledon boys title.

Opelka, Fritz, Paul and Mmoh are all expected to be among the world’s top juniors competing in the U.S. Open Junior Championships, Sept. 6-13 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.


New York Tennis Magazine Staff
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