Serving Notice

It always comes down to the serve. This is something that 19-year-old American Reilly Opelka has already learned. Whenever Opelka is interviewed, or chatting with a fan or reporter, it isn’t long before he gets the question: “What’s the fastest serve you ever hit?” Or, “What’s the most amount of aces you’ve hit in a match?” Or maybe it’s, “Can you serve harder than John Isner?”

- Peter Bodo

Ironically, Opelka doesn’t get asked those questions because he’s known far and wide as a great server. He isn’t known far and wide at all—at least not yet. He gets asked those kinds of questions because he happens to be 6'11".

When people see someone of Opelka’s height, his balance and versatility aren’t the first attributes that come to mind. They think, Kaboom! Massive height, the thinking goes, should give a tennis player an enormous advantage. Never mind that nobody of Opelka’s height has ever won Wimbledon, or any Slam. Or that it took Ivo Karlovic, another member of the 6'11" club, until he turned 36 to take over the top spot as the ATP’s all-time ace leader.