When all the ooohhh’s and aaahhh’s subside and the sun fades into the night, the ATP must face some serious questions raised by a few things that came up in Delray. First, how interesting and entertaining is it to watch two guys who are both 6’5” or taller bomb serves at each other on hard courts? I ask that question because, after having to sit through the delayed semifinal match between Milos Raonic and Reilly Opelka, which featured few rallies, not many service returns, and no discernible strategy other than each player trying to hit their serves as hard as they possibly could, the match offered less excitement than a 12-and under girls match on clay. When tried and true tennis fans can’t stand the game, who can?
I’m impressed that some of the guys can hit their serves in the 130’s and 140’s. Now, give me a guy who is 6-foot, or 5’11”, and show me that kind of serve. It does absolutely nothing for me when a 7-foot guy does that. The angle and aerodynamics of a serve from a 7-footer is decidedly different than that coming from a “normal” guy, and although I appreciate the movement and agility of a guy like Opelka, he’s just not fun to watch. And that’s a problem for the ATP.
Second, how real are the reported “injuries” that players come up with when they decide that they don’t want to play? This past week in Delray, a bunch of players withdrew because of injuries. Now most injuries are real, which I simply assume for two reasons: First, tennis players play hard and are pulled in a bunch of different directions. They serve, maybe 110-200 serves a day, with the same motion that a baseball pitcher uses, and baseball pitchers pitch every fourth or fifth day and are usually stopped by a pitching coach or his manager once they hit the 100 pitch plateau. So, I understand how tennis players could have persistent and consistent shoulder, elbow, wrist, ankle, knee, hip, and back injuries, as well as sore muscles, pulled tendons and ligaments, and myriad other problems. But what do you do when a guy pulls out of a tournament (that has been advertising his name and likeness to draw in paying fans) because of an “injury” and then shows up the very next week at a tournament where he’s playing both singles and doubles, which is a rare double-up for guys who make their living predominantly by playing singles, where the big dough is. We can’t invade anyone’s body to determine if an injury is “real”. But let’s just say, I don’t believe all injuries are real. I’d feel a whole lot better if the player would just say, “I’m exhausted, and although you’re expecting me at your tournament, I can't play at my peak, and you’re better off putting in a lesser player to take my spot in the draw.” At least I’d respect the honesty.
Now, for the hosannas. Many congratulations go out to Opelka who not only won this tournament and the $97,000 that goes along with the title, but also deserves kudos for winning it the hard way. Opelka was scheduled to play his semifinal match with 2nd-seeded Raonic on Saturday evening in the coveted nighttime Stadium slot. Unfortunately it rained here in South Florida, and both his singles semifinal and a doubles semi had to be pushed to early Sunday morning. Not only did he get out of bed early to win his semi at 10:30 am Sunday morning, where he outslugged the Canadian, Raonic, but he came back yesterday afternoon a little after 3:00 pm and used all three sets to knock out Yoshi Nishioka.
Opelka may play in a way that I find incredibly boring, but he definitely deserves credit for winning two matches in one day under the hot Florida sun, especially when both of them went the maximum three sets, and he managed to save a match point, when he was down in the second set tiebreaker in the semis. I also understand that there’s nothing he can do about being 7-feet tall, and that he’s playing the game with the tools with which he was given, so I don’t want to appear to be an ogre. So again, congratulations to Opelka. I hope I never have to sit through another one of your matches.