Reilly Opelka is at the ATP 250 tournament in Lyon, France, in the week before Roland Garros. A fan approaches with a photo to sign.

The only problem? It’s a photo of fellow American giant John Isner.

“The guy asks me how my foot was,” says Opelka with a smile. “I was like, ‘He’s a big enough Isner fan to know that he has a broken foot, he’s got a picture of him, but he’s not a big enough Isner fan to know that we look nothing alike.’

“I thought it was really funny. So I had to follow through and sign the picture. I mixed it up, though, signing it ‘Jon’.” 

Such cases of mistaken identity may soon be a thing of the past. Opelka comes into this week’s Citi Open, the ATP 500 tennis tournament in Washington, D.C., in the Top 50 of the ATP Rankings for the first time in his career… and with no points to defend through the US Open, where last year he fell in the first round of qualifying.

His new mark is 43 and he’s already one of the most-feared servers in the game. Leveraging his 6’ 11” frame, Opelka has fired a tour-best 653 aces this season at an average of 21 a match. He is fourth on the list of most service games won (90.3%) and also fourth for most first-serve points won (81%).

But Opelka is far from one dimensional. His court coverage for a man his size is excellent, his forehand return from the deuce court is capable of producing searing winners at big moments and he can dig in for a fight on the baseline when circumstances require.

“He’s probably a little ahead of schedule,” Opelka’s coach of 19 months, Jay Berger, says of his progress. “Getting stronger in the body is going to be a big part of the next stage of his development.

“He’s got great hands. He’s a really good ball striker and people underestimate his athleticism and speed. His forward movement is incredible for someone of his size.”

That’s not by accident. Although Opelka says that his height has never diminished his athleticism, he doesn’t take it for granted. He does a lot of footwork drills involving ladders and beach workouts and recently began working with a device using flashing lights to improve explosive movement and reaction times.

With a 17-14 record in 2019, which includes his first title at the New York Open, it’s noteworthy that Opelka played just four tour-level matches last season for a modest 2-2 record. Despite a mid-season battle with mono, his 12-month rise up the rankings from 229 to 99 at the end of 2018 was built at the ATP Challenger Tour, where he won three titles from five finals, including back-to-back crowns in Knoxville and Champaign to end his year.

“It was part of the plan,” the Michigan native says. “Last year I wanted to play on the Challenger Tour and try to play and win as many matches as I could and learn a lot.

“I’ve always been confident and believed in myself that I could get to where I wanted to be. I’ve put in a lot of hard work and I’ve been patient.”

A side benefit of playing most of 2018 at the Challenger level is that competitors who haven’t seen much of him on the ATP Tour are still figuring out what game plan to deploy when they meet Opelka.

“The first time I play guys I think they almost underestimate my speed and ability from the baseline,” he says. “I play aggressively and make plenty of unforced errors, but when I need to stay in the point by scrapping and running balls down, I have no trouble doing that.

“I think a lot of guys are surprised by that and it’s won me a lot of matches this year because guys haven’t played me the right way. They’ve made balls thinking I would beat myself. I have a good record against those type of players.”

One player who knows Opelka better than most is the 6′ 10″ Isner, who has gone 0-3 against his young rival in 2019 meetings despite winning more points in two of those three matches. In total this year they have played 10 sets, all of which have gone to tie-breaks.

Last week in Atlanta, in a match featuring a combined 64 aces, Opelka edged Isner 7-6(2), 6-7(5), 7-6(5) after saving three break points deep in the decider. Earlier in the match he dug himself out of trouble on serve with some hyper-aggressive groundstroke winners in big moments.

“Sometimes I’ll step off the gas pedal if there is a time I need to make some balls, but my go-to instinct is to be aggressive,” Opelka says. “At big moments in a match it’s not too hard for me to do that, because it’s part of my game.

“When you look at the great players, at the big moments in matches, they play their brand of tennis.”

Despite the similarities with Isner and the respect he has for his countryman, Opelka did not fashion his game on the 2018 Miami Open champion, or anyone for that matter.

“When I was young I looked up to Roddick and Blake and I loved Ferrer, but I didn’t model my game on anyone. I have a ton of respect for Isner and I still look up to John. He’s an unbelievable guy and a great competitor.”

Opelka attributes much of his success to the roles played by Berger, the former Top 10 American player, and his day-to-day travelling coach Jean-Yves Aubone. “JY is terrific to have on the road with me and Jay has been an unbelievable coach and mentor. I was 225 in the world when we started and he’s always believed in me. When we started I was kind of in a slump and lacking belief in myself.”

Berger is similarly complimentary about his charge. “He comes from a great family, he’s been raised the right way. Combine that with great mentoring from Tom Gullikson, Brian Gottfried, Michael Sell and Diego Moyano and you can see why he’s a really, really good kid.

“He’s extremely coachable. He brings different topics to the table, he’s very interested in developing into the best player he can be.”

For a man who serves from the heavens, the sky is the limit.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, in his 16^th year as a professional tennis player, picked up his first win at the Citi Open on Monday. The 34-year-old Frenchman halted Canadian Brayden Schnur, finalist at the New York Open in February, 6-4, 7-6(2) to reach the second round.

Tsonga, who improved to 22-12 on the year, lost his only other match in Washington, D.C., in 2009. He will next meet second seed Karen Khachanov.

American Tommy Paul beat countryman Denis Kudla for the first time 6-0, 6-4 to set up a second-round showdown with top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece. Paul and Kudla had never met at tour-level, but Kudla had won all four of their other meetings.

The 22-year-old Paul, who made the 2016 Washington quarter-finals, earned his first tour-level win of the season. He has never faced #NextGenATP Tsitsipas, No. 6 in the ATP Rankings.

American wild card Bjorn Fratangelo escaped past 2016 finalist Ivo Karlovic 6-4, 6-7(14), 7-6(5). The 26-year-old Fratangelo withstood 31 aces and saved all four break points. He will next meet third seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia.

In other action, Frenchman Adrian Mannarino will meet fourth seed Kevin Anderson after beating Belarusian Ilya Ivashka 7-6(3), 6-3, and Romanian Marius Copil fought past Danish qualifier Mikael Torpegaard 6-1, 5-7, 6-3 and will meet sixth seed Marin Cilic.

Newport finalist Alexander Bublik beat American Bradley Klahn 7-6(5), 6-3 to set up a meeting against 16^th seed Frances Tiafoe of the U.S., and South African Lloyd Harris will face 13^th seed Kyle Edmund after beating Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Andy Murray could potentially begin his singles comeback in just a few weeks’ time at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, an ATP Masters 1000 event that begins 11 August.

Murray, who’s playing doubles this week with his brother Jamie at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C., told reporters that he’s been practising singles the past few weeks and has been feeling good. After Wimbledon, where the Scot played doubles with Pierre-Hugues Herbert and mixed doubles with Serena Williams, Murray practised a few singles drills. In Washington, he played a set on Sunday and about eight games on Monday.

Spotted on the @CitiOpen practice courts ?@andy_murray | #CitiOpen pic.twitter.com/ryxGJVhWf9

— ATP Tour (@ATP_Tour) July 28, 2019

“In terms of how I’m moving and feeling and pulling up the next day from these practices, I’m really happy with where I’m at. I think I’m quite close,” he said. “If I was to play a tournament in a few weeks’ time, I could do it. But it’s just to get to maybe where I want to get to, I’ll need to play matches and get a little bit more work done in the gym on my cardio.”

Murray underwent a resurfacing surgery on his right hip in January, and in turn spent hours in the gym, strengthening his hip and improving its flexibility. But his cardio suffered.

“My cardio isn’t great,” he said.

His recent doubles success, which includes winning the Fever-Tree Championships title with Feliciano Lopez at The Queen’s Club in June, has helped. But the Scot feels he’s still a bit away from feeling comfortable by himself in a match.

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“What I’m doing here is, for the most part, I’m going to practise singles and play doubles to compete and then just each week I’m just going to see. If I keep progressing and I feel good in three weeks’ time, then I’ll play singles as soon as I’m ready. I’m not quite ready at this week, but I hope at some stage soon I will be,” Murray said.

If he isn’t able to make his singles return in Cincinnati, Murray will most likely wait until after the US Open to return to play singles and will continue to play doubles, including in New York. He’s currently scheduled to play doubles with Lopez at next week’s Coupe Rogers, a Masters 1000 event in Montreal.

“Best-case scenario probably would be Cincinnati, and then if I wasn’t able to play in Cincinnati, there’s a good chance I would probably wait until after New York because I wouldn’t want my first tournament to be playing best of five [sets],” Murray said.

Compared to last year, however, everything has been good news for Murray, who has drastically improved physically since 12 months ago. Last year, Murray played singles in Washington and made the quarter-finals (withdrawal). His run featured a three-set win against countryman Kyle Edmund, who was ranked No. 18 at the time.

But, because of pain in his right hip, Murray couldn’t serve properly nor could he use his right leg the correct way. It was also an emotional time for him. He finished his third-round match against Romanian Marius Copil at 3:02 a.m. local time, and afterwards broke down in tears.

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“I actually saw the end of that match a couple of weeks ago. I couldn’t walk. I was watching myself walk, and I was like ‘Wow’. It was really bad. I was struggling a lot. I don’t know how I really got through the match in the end. I was upset because my hip was really, really painful,” Murray said.

This year, however, he’s pain free, and he’s enjoying his tennis. “It’s brilliant,” he said.

The 32-year-old has leaned on Bob Bryan along the way. Murray peppered him with questions, beginning 12 months ago, when Bryan, then 40, underwent a hip surface replacement with an artificial joint, also on his right hip.

“He was like my guinea pig. I was messaging him two, three times a week, asking how he was getting on, trying to find out if it was potentially an option for me to give it a go. We’re not unbelievably close, but I communicated with him loads over that period,” Murray said.

In January 2018, the former World No. 1 first underwent surgery on his right hip. But because of severe pain, Murray was contemplating retirement in January at the Australian Open before he underwent a second operation six months ago.

Bryan has resumed a full-time doubles schedule in 2019 with his twin brother, Mike Bryan. The legendary combination have won two ATP Tour titles, including the Masters 1000 in Miami.

“He’s done extremely well to get back to the level that he’s playing at,” Murray said, “and I’m glad he did it, because if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have maybe given it a go even.”

All eyes were on Nick Kyrgios and Stefanos Tsitsipas on Monday evening at the Citi Open, where the singles stars teamed for the first time on the doubles court. But top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah stole the show, eliminating the Greek-Australian duo 6-3, 3-6, 10-5 in a 66-minute first-round encounter.

The Wimbledon champions have shone brightly this year, as Cabal and Farah are leading the ATP Doubles Race To London by 2,410 points over second-placed Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan. And their level showed against Kyrgios and Tsitsipas, winning 92 per cent (34/37) of their first-serve points en route to the second round.

View ATP Doubles Race To London

Although Kyrgios and Tsitsipas showed flashes of their shotmaking abilities, it was the Colombians who consistently were in the right place at the right time, putting themselves in perfect positions to poach at the net, and also placing returns back at the server’s feet instead of in the vicinity of the net player.

Cabal and Farah had few issues in the opening set, not facing break point. And it appeared everything was going their way after a highlight-reel moment on the first point at 1-1, when Cabal fell to the court right in front of the net to avoid getting hit by a Tsitsipas forehand. Instead of completely ducking out of the way, he poked his racquet above the net and somehow reflexed an incredible volley into the court, eventually allowing his team to win the point.

The pair’s only slip came while Farah served at 2-3 in the second set. Even though he served well throughout the match, he double faulted on the only break point his team faced, allowing Kyrgios and Tsitsipas to take the advantage and force a Match Tie-break.

Once there, though, the Colombians dominated with their serves, winning all seven of their service points and earning three of four second-serve return points to come out on top. Cabal finished it off with a forehand volley winner.

In the other doubles match of the day in Washington, second seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo beat Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury 4-6, 6-3, 10-5, giving Melo his 500th tour-level win. He is the first Brazilian to accomplish the feat in doubles.

It was a match between two teams inside the Top 10 of the ATP Doubles Race To London, and the key was that Kubot and Melo won four of seven return points in the Match Tie-break.

Marcelo Melo made history on Monday at the Citi Open, becoming the 35th player all-time to earn 500 tour-level doubles wins. The first Brazilian to accomplish the feat in doubles, Melo partnered Lukasz Kubot past Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury 4-6, 6-3, 10-5 to reach the second round in Washington, D.C.

“It means a lot. It means I’ve been playing good for a long time,” said Melo, who did not know he was on the verge of the milestone before the match. “I’m very happy and the many people [who have been] with me all the way, for sure they’re going to be happy as well.”

Melo has earned at least 25 tour-level doubles victories every year since 2008. The 35-year-old owns 32 titles with eight different partners, including 12 with Kubot.

In each of the past six years, Melo has earned a spot at the Nitto ATP Finals, qualifying four times with Croat Ivan Dodig and twice with Kubot. Melo has captured nine ATP Masters 1000 trophies, also triumphing at 2015 Roland Garros (w/Dodig) and 2017 Wimbledon (w/Kubot).

“[I have] a lot of memories. I’ve had great partners all the way, family support,” Melo said. “I think the first time I qualified for the [Nitto ATP] Finals was huge for us. When we won the first Masters [1000] series in Shanghai as well, I was so happy. Of course I have to remember the two Grand Slam titles I have, the French Open and Wimbledon.”

Melo has no plans of stopping anytime soon, either. Thirty of the 34 players ahead of him on the all-time doubles wins list are retired, so the Brazilian will hope to climb those standings. Mike Bryan is the all-time leader with 1,138 tour-level victories.

“I don’t know if I can achieve 1,000 because I took 10 years to get to 500, but I’m so happy already to pass 500. That’s a lot of matches,” Melo said. “I’m very happy as much as I can achieve. I think I can still play for a few more years. At the point I’m still enjoying tennis, so I will continue playing.

“I need to take care of the body. All the players, we do a lot pf physio work, a lot of gym work to get the body in shape… what’s most important is to keep going healthy, to be prepared. If you’re prepared, you have a better chance to keep going longer.”

Career Tour-Level Doubles Match Wins (All-Time)

Reigning Next Gen ATP Finals champion Stefanos Tsitsipas has enjoyed a successful 2019, climbing from year-end No. 15 in the ATP Rankings to where he is now, a career-high No. 6. But tennis is not all the Greek is striving to improve in.

Tsitsipas, the top seed at this week’s Citi Open in Washington, D.C., wants to find another level off the court, too, specifically in his budding vlogging career. The 20-year-old is hiring a videographer to help with that, planning a six-episode season on his YouTube channel.

“I decided it is time to step it up,” Tsitsipas said. “I thought in order for me to be able to make it, because each season is supposedly going to take half a year to make, I thought it would be nice to have a videographer-photographer next to me who is going to help me film instead of me doing all that.”

Tsitsipas has long shown an interest in the camera equipment that professional videographers use. But the three-time ATP Tour champion knows that having great help by his side won’t be all that matters in creating a standout vlog.

“For sure, better content than gear. I don’t care about the gear. The gear helps me make great content, that’s why I spend so much money on it. But if the gear is amazing and the content is low, then what is the point of having such expensive camera equipment?” Tsitsipas wondered. “I always put priority on quality over quantity.”

A reporter asked Tsitsipas on Monday if he also has an interest in acting. And the right-hander was quick to praise some of his idols in that industry.

“I have a lot of aspirations and I’m a big fan of Robert de Niro, [Martin] Scorsese and his style. Leonardo DiCaprio also, and also Bradley Cooper,” Tsitsipas said. “The voice of Morgan Freeman, obviously. You’ve got to have that voice!”

Besides being the top-seeded player in the singles draw this week, Tsitsipas is also competing in doubles alongside Aussie Nick Kyrgios, creating one of the most interesting teams in the field. They begin their campaign on Monday evening against recent Wimbledon champions and top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah.

“He’s known for playing pretty good doubles and I thought having the opportunity to play a little bit before my singles also would help me get used to the conditions faster,” Tsitsipas said. “We do have probably an aggressive mindset on court. We both like to be aggressive and be in charge of the points. He likes to come to the net. It’s not his strongest point, but he feels comfortable doing it. His returns are pretty good. We’re both tall guys with good serves.

“I don’t know what to expect, to be honest. I’m really looking forward to it. I’m actually more excited [for this] than any other doubles match. I don’t know how he feels, but I’m sure we can play some good doubles.”

Careful, Nico! The elbow!

Over the past three years, Nicolas Barrientos has battled to return to the court after undergoing elbow surgery. The 32-year-old was forced to stop playing in 2016 due to a complete muscle tear in his elbow. But now he’s back and targeting a successful comeback.

Maybe diving on a hard court isn’t the best idea. On Monday, Barrientos scored his first match win on the singles court since 2016, defeating Dan Added 6-4, 7-5 at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Segovia. While serving for the match at 6-4, 6-5, the Colombian scrambled to deny Added’s passing shot, leaving his feet to complete the perfect dive volley. He crashed to the court as the ball cleared the net and landed on his opponent’s side.

“Diving is something that I’ve always done since I’m little,” Barrientos told ATPChallengerTour.com. “It’s always inside my head. Really I don’t think about it. When I see the ball coming, it’s just an instinct. I don’t want to let the ball go. I was taught by my coach, who took me to a sand pit and hit the ball against the wall and made me dive on the sand. I loved it.”

Barrientos, who ascended to a career-high No. 71 in doubles and reached an ATP Tour final in Bogota in 2014, with countryman Juan Sebastian Cabal, owns four Challenger titles. He continues to be inspired by Cabal and Robert Farah, who became the first Colombians to triumph at Wimbledon earlier this month.

“It’s amazing to see guys like Cabal and Farah doing so well. I actually did my offseason with Cabal in December. And today I was especially inspired by Egan Bernal, who won the Tour de France yesterday. I know it was a first round and just another match, but for me it’s something I needed to overcome. Winning that first match was going to be really hard and I got some strength from thinking about them. It inspired me a lot.”

Barrientos says he had six doctors review his case and that surgery was the best course of action. He continued to experience pain upon returning last year and, not wanting to push it, stopped to work with some juniors in his home country.

“I came back again this year and only played doubles from the start. Then I wanted to play more singles and while my serving ability was limited, because the more serves I hit the more inflammation I had, the ATP physio told me that I just needed to build up my tolerance. I took some time doing this, going from only being able to hit 10 serves to hitting 100 in a row. Now I am completely pain-free.”

Barrientos, who is using a protected ranking this week at the Open Castilla y Leon, will next face fifth seed Nicola Kuhn on Tuesday night.

World No. 4 Dominic Thiem is seeking home glory at tour-level for the first time this week at the Generali Open. Although he knows that his ATP Ranking makes him the top seed and, therefore, the favourite, the Austrian is taking nothing for granted.

“I will try everything to win the title, of course. I also know if I play my 100 per cent that my chances are pretty high,” Thiem said. “But at the same time, every single player in the main draw is that good that if I drop some per cent, they will all beat me. So it depends if I can play my top tennis and I will do everything to do so.”

There’s even more pressure on Thiem this week since he is playing in front of his home fans for the first time this season. The top seed has lost his opening match in Kitzbühel in each of his past two appearances (2016 & 2018), but he hopes to turn that around this year as he pursues his maiden title at the ATP 250 tournament.

“[It’s] very special. It doesn’t happen that often [that I play at home]. Only two home events unfortunately all year, but that makes it very special,” said Thiem, who made the 2014 Kitzbühel final. “I have so many nice memories from here, also some tough memories from which I learned, hopefully. It’s already my ninth time playing here. Such a long time ago I played here the first time… I can’t wait to start again.”

In the second round, Thiem — who has a first-round bye — will play a countryman in wild card Sebastian Ofner or qualifier Lucas Miedler, guaranteeing that a home favourite will advance to the quarter-finals. An Austrian has not lifted the singles trophy in Kitzbühel since Thomas Muster in 1993.

“It’s very important. I’m playing an Austrian for sure in the second round, which is very good for Austrian tennis,” Thiem said. “I think for all the region here and for Austrian tennis, the tournament is super-important.”

It has been a strong season for Thiem, who won his first ATP Masters 1000 title at the BNP Paribas Open before reaching his second consecutive Roland Garros final in Paris. The 25-year-old also won an ATP 500 title in Barcelona.

“I think it’s my best season so far, especially Indian Wells and Roland Garros were amazing,” Thiem said. “But that’s the past, and I’m fully ready for the second part of the season and I hope to get off to a great start here.”

The grass-court season was a short one for Thiem, whose lone match on the surface this year came in an opening-round loss against Sam Querrey at Wimbledon. But after getting his feet dirty on the Hamburg clay last week, advancing to the quarter-finals, the nine-time clay-court ATP Tour champion is ready to begin another surge this week in Austria.

“I’m physically very fresh, mentally very ready. I didn’t have so many matches in the past six or seven weeks,” Thiem said. “I’m really fresh and ready for everything that’s coming.”

Earlier this year, Lorenzo Sonego defeated Federico Delbonis in their first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting at the Brasil Open, triumphing in straight sets after one hour and 24 minutes. On Monday, the Italian needed more than two and a half times that long to oust the Argentine.

Sonego defeated Delbonis 7-6(4), 6-7(4), 7-6(4) in a three-hour, 36-minute marathon to reach the second round of the Generali Open, an ATP 250 tournament held in Kitzbühel, Austria. The seventh seed won seven fewer points than Delbonis in their battle, but emerged victorious in large part due to saving all eight break points he faced in the deciding set.

The World No. 56, who claimed his maiden ATP Tour title last month on the grass of Antalya, was No. 116 in the ATP Rankings at this point last year. But he has climbed as high as No. 46 in 2019, reaching his first ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.

Sonego will play Roberto Carballes Baena for a spot in the last eight. The Spaniard rallied past Bolivian Hugo Dellien 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in one hour and 49 minutes. Carballes Baena defeated Sonego in Buenos Aires in straight sets earlier this year.

Qualifier Matthias Bachinger outlasted Slovakian Martin Klizan 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 7-6(4) after two hours and 58 minutes. The German had not won a tour-level main draw match since February, when he made the quarter-finals of the Open 13 Provence (l. to Humbert). Bachinger will next face eighth seed Pablo Carreno Busta or Casper Ruud.

In other action, Dennis Novak advanced with a 6-3, 6-4 victory against fellow wild card Jurij Rodionov. He will next try to upset fourth seed Pablo Cuevas.