Reilly Opelka blasted his way into the third round at Wimbledon on Wednesday as the giant 21-year-old American’s serve eventually proved too hot to handle for triple grand slam champion Stan Wawrinka in a high-octane five set duel.
Opelka came through 7-5 3-6 4-6 6-4 8-6 against the 22nd seeded Swiss for the biggest win of his career and there will be plenty of bigger names in the draw now scrabbling anxiously for a tape of this match.
“It’s a huge win. More so the situation of the match being down two sets to one against him,” Opelka said.
At 2.10 metres, the former Wimbledon junior champion is the joint-tallest-ever ATP-ranked player (with Ivo Karlovic) and, unsurprisingly, his biggest weapon is his serve.
It reached 228kph on Wednesday – the fastest of the Championship so far – and, combined with some surprisingly deft court movement, is the perfect Wimbledon weapon.
Wawrinka, who has never gone beyond the quarter-finals at Wimbledon despite winning all three of the other slams and previously reaching No.3 in the world rankings, could not not deal with it at all in the first set.
The 34-year-old eventually used all his experience to work things out and start getting it back and then treating the crowd to some of his sublime backhand winners en route to taking the second and third.
But, just as it seemed as if he would go through smoothly, Opelka found another serving gear to snatch the fourth and fifth.
He will now play Canadian 15th seed and former finalist Milos Raonic, who defeated Dutchman Robin Haase 7-6 (7-1) 7-5 7-6 (7-4).
Wawrinka had few complaints after his loss. “Against those big servers you know you’re not going to have a lot of chances and you get under pressure a little bit more,” he said.
“At the end he went for it and he deserved to win”.
Elsewhere, Belgium’s David Goffin advanced with a routine 6-2 6-4 6-3 victory over Jeremy Chardy while Czech Jiri Vesely joined him in the third round by beating Pablo Cuevas 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 6-4.
Frenchman Benoit Paire also progressed after Serb Miomir Kecmanovic retired due to an injury while trailing 7-6 (7-5) 6-4.
Italy’s diminutive Thomas Fabbiano, who stunned seventh-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas in his opener, endured a second five-setter in as many rounds to edge past Karlovic 6-3 6-7 (8-6) 6-3 6-7 (7-4) 6-4 in a little over three hours.
Russian 10th seed Karen Khachanov bounced back after losing the first set to beat 37-year-old Feliciano Lopez 4-6 6-4 7-5 6-4.