Blinded By The Height? Opelka Says Just Wait For The Earth To Turn

A battle between 6’ 11” Reilly Opelka and 5’ 7” Diego Schwartzman was always going to have a quirky element to it. But height played a central role in an unusual dispute that led to a six-minute stoppage during the second-round match-up at the Miami Open Saturday.

At 2-all in the first set, Opelka called a time-out when he said sunlight reflecting on windows from neighbouring Hard Rock Stadium made it impossible for him to serve. ATP Supervisor Cedric Mourier, who had granted a halt in a match one day earlier for the same reason, agreed to a limited halt in play while the reflection issue subsided.

World No. 24 Schwartzman expressed his frustration, claiming that Opelka was only impeded because of his height.

While the Argentine made it clear to Opelka that he was not upset with him personally, he voiced his displeasure to Mourier and chair umpire Simon Cannavan. “It’s not fair to stop,” the Argentine said. “He’s too tall. That’s [the only reason] we’ve stopped.”

Opelka saw it differently.

“I don’t think it had anything to do with height,” he said. “I literally was blinded. I couldn’t see when I was throwing the ball up. The Supervisor was sitting out there for a reason. Every outside court has had the issue at different times when the sun is in different spots. He knew it was going to happen any minute and I would not have been able to play. Diego was friendly enough with me – he’s a classy guy – he just wasn’t happy with the ref.

“I didn’t even see the ball the point before. Then at 15/30 I went to toss it and I could not see. It [the reflection] just hit that second.”

After the match, Schwartzman said, “He’s too tall and he couldn’t see because of the stadium. It’s a new rule; if the player has any problem, you can stop. I think it’s not fair. I’ve never seen something like this. The stadium is 300m from our court.”

In an unlikely storyline, Opelka, who averages more than 20 aces a match, didn’t serve one ace against the diminutive Schwartzman in the first set, which featured five service breaks. He finished with eight aces for the match but took solace in beating such a quality opponent 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 when his serve wasn’t firing.

“It just wasn’t a good serving day. Didn’t hit my spots well or serve a high percentage. It was one of the worst service performances of the year. But he is one of the best returners in the game and he breaks serve more than anybody.

“I am happy that with my biggest weapon not working and coming off food poisoning two nights ago that I was still able to beat a great player. It shows there is more to my game than my serve and this match really showed that. I had to scrap for a lot of points.”

Opelka next meets World No. 15 Russian Daniil Medvedev, whom he pushed to a third-set tie-break in their only meeting in Washington, D.C. in 2017.

“It’s a very difficult match-up. He’s so tall and long. He’s going to be touching all my serves and from the baseline he’s a lot better than me, so it’s going to be brutal. I think he’s one of the top eight players in the world. He’s already close to the Top 10.

“His backhand is money and he’s solid off every angle. He’s big and it’s tough to get the ball by him. He crushes the ball so flat, so you can’t penetrate off his ball because he’s coming at you so hard. He’s a nightmare.

“The guys ahead of him are all older. He’s going to be a consistent Top 8 in the world in the next couple of years.”