Last Updated on August 30, 2022
Reilly Opelka is an American professional tennis player. Reilly Opelka only started playing tennis regularly when he was twelve years old. This occurrence came about as a result of regular training with the United States Tennis Association (USTA). Opelka despite his late entrance to Competitive Tennis is a Junior Grand Slam Champion winning the 2015 Junior Wimbledon Championship and going on to make his ATP debut the following year at the 2016 U.S Men’s Clay Court Championship. Opelka has since gone on to win four ATP career singles titles.
Opelka is easily recognizable on the Tennis Courts by his Height, he holds a joint record for the tallest-ever ATP-ranked player with Croatian Ivo Karlovic. Karlovic and Opelka are both 6 ft 11 in tall. Opelka can hit serves in the low 140mph range, this is aided and boosted in a huge way by his immense height and span.
Opelka is currently ranked world number 18 in men’s singles by the ATP and enjoys a long-standing friendship and rivalry with his compatriot, world Number No 14 Taylor Fritz. Fritz and Opelka played in the 2015 Junior Wimbledon Semi-Final in which Opelka emerged victorious. Fritz was the top-seeded player at the 2015 junior Wimbledon Championship while Opelka was unseeded at the event. The have gone on to stablish a strong friendship and competitive rivalry. Opelka was the best man at Fritz’s wedding.
Opelka had an association with New Balance (an American sportswear company) as a brand ambassador, He is a Red Bull ambassador, has a clothing and shoe deal with Fila and has been known to use the Wilson Racquets.
Reily Opelka’s Parents
Reilly Opelka is son to George and Lynne Opelka. They are known to be some of his more robust supporters on and off the Tennis Courts. George and Lynne are both sufficiently tall. Great genes as regards to the height of both parents passed on to Reilly easily accounts for his considerable height and consequence success on the tennis courts although he is taller than both his parents. The Opelka family initially lived in St Joseph, Michigan where Reilly was born but moved to Palm Coast, Florida when Reilly was only four years old.
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Reily Opelka Father is George Opelka
George Opelka has a Bachelor of Science degree from The University of Alabama and has worked in Chicago, Michigan and Palm Coast, Florida. George started his professional career in the Greater Chicago Area Real Estate Industry working as a Sales Executive for the DAMAR Corporation; a Chicago based Real Estate Information Company. George has since gone on to garner experience in Sales, Marketing, Software development and Finance over the course of an impressive career.
George was Manager of ACI- The Appraiser’s Choice from November 2018 to January 2022. ACI is a company interested and invested in software development and solutions.
George Opelka is presently Head of Pro Player Relations and Head of Community (Southeast) at SwingVision, a technology company responsible for the tennis performance tracking app SwingVision, which is at the forefront of advanced Artificial Intelligence innovations using Machine Learning processing. SwingVision continues to be useful for players and coaches, tracking metrics for the review and improvement of tennis games. It is useful during practices and actual matches.
George Opelka and SwingVision are looking to latch onto a certain segment
of professional players who perhaps lack an all-year-round coach and those looking to improve their tennis game using technologically backed data. SwingVision has over 10000 monthly users, is presently exclusively made available by the App Store and has been mentioned severally in the Apple Keynotes.
SwingVision harnesses Apple’s underlying technologies such as its neural engine amongst others and is looking to become a mainstay with tennis players. Players such as former tennis world number one, Andy Roddick and James Riley Blake are invested and are advisory with the company. It is not known if Reilly Opelka in any capacity uses the SwingVision app but George Opelka working in Player Relation for the SwingVision company does bode well for the future of the app.
George Opelka takes more than a professional interest in sports. He actively plays Golf and he purposefully set his son, Reilly on the path to Success when he introduced him to a golfing buddy of his, Tom Gullikson. Gullikson is a former professional tennis player and was one of the original members of the USTA player development program which was responsible for producing American Tennis greats such as Andy Roddick. Gullikson has been duly recognized by Reilly to have been immensely instrumental to his early developments as a tennis athlete.
George Opelka is brother to popular American Radio Broadcaster and Television Producer Mike Opelka. The brothers were raised in Greenville, Illinois and in 2020 initiated the idea of a “Buy-Cott” of Goya food products following the controversy over comments made by Goya foods CEO Robert Unanue.
Reilly Opelka’s Mother is Lynne Opelka
Lynne Opelka is married to George Opelka and is mother to Reilly Opelka. Lynn is very enthusiastic about her son’s Tennis Career and has over the years frequented his matches to encourage and support him. Lynne first introduced her son Reilly to Tennis when she and a group of her friends decided to enroll their boys in tennis lessons in Michigan. The lessons had to be indoors because of the Michigan Snow but that was Reilly Opelka’s first introduction to the world of Tennis.
When her family moved to Grand haven Community, Palm Coast, Florida, she again enrolled her kids in tennis lessons as a way for them to meet other kids in the neighborhood. Monumental events like the Grand Slam Tournaments were the furthest thing on her mind. Lynne noticed that Reilly was enthused about the tennis lessons and when he started regular training with the USTA in Boca Raton when he was twelve, a condo was rented down there and Lynne ensured he was commuted between Palm Coast and Boca Raton so her son could focus on training and School at the same time even if the Florida Virtual School System had to be Utilized for his education. All that effort was eventually rewarded when Lynne and her husband George watched from the stands as her son claimed the 2015 Wimbledon Junior Championship.
Reilly Opelka’s Siblings
Reilly Opelka has only one sibling, a sister named Brenna Opelka. Brenna Opelka has a degree from Florida State University. She has had professional experience in Copy Writing, Strategy, Content Creation, Editing, Marketing and Media. She has lived in Michigan, Florida, California and New York city.
Brenna is quite fond of her brother Reilly and has been known to accompany her parents to watch his matches and support him.
