Brisbane
Opelka continues his dream week and is already in the Brisbane final
Lehecka, who ended Dimitrov’s unbeaten record, will be his rival
January 04, 2025
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Reilly Opelka in action this week in Brisbane.
By ATP Editorial Board
The duel between two of the greatest servers on the ATP Tour went to the hands of Reilly Opelka, who won this Saturday in the semifinals of the Brisbane International presented by Evie against Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.
The tall American of 2.11 m. He defeated the Frenchman 6-3, 7-6(4) in one hour and 26 minutes to reach his first ATP Tour final since 2022.
“It’s great to be in another final. I didn’t think I was going to play something like that after last year,” said Opelka, who missed most of the last two seasons due to wrist and hip injuries. “One guy, in a kind of miracle, a Canadian guy healed me and I started training and once the pain was gone the confidence came back.”
The American also recorded victory No. 100 of his career to appear in his seventh ATP Tour final. This Sunday he will fight for his fifth crown and first since Houston 2022, when he faces Jiri Lehecka.
Americans with more than 100 active victories
1. Taylor Fritz: 287
2. Frances Tiafoe: 211
3. Tommy Paul: 176
4. Sebastian Korda: 125
5. Mackenzie McDonald: 105
6. Marcos Giron: 104
7. Reilly Opelka: 100
Opelka, who returns to the Top 200 of the PIF ATP Live Rankings after appearing in the semifinals, continued his great moment after also surprising Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals. It was his eighth victory against a Top 10.
In the first match of the day, Jiri Lehecka took charge of ending the undefeated 2024 champion Grigor Dimitrov, after defeating him 6-4, 4-4 (RET) in the semifinals played this Saturday.
One day after beating Nicolás Jarry to claim his 80th win on the ATP Tour, the No. 28 in the PIF ATP Rankings has once again stopped Dimitrov, whom he had already defeated twice (Monte Carlo 2023 and Stockholm 2022) . He now leads the Lexus ATP HeadToHead 3-1 between them.
The 23-year-old Czech played an impeccable game this Saturday. When the 33-year-old Bulgarian retired due to injury, at one hour and 23 minutes into the game, Lehecka had not yet faced break points on his serve and had broken the world No. 10’s serve on one occasion.
Beyond the outcome, this result means Lehecka’s sixth victory against a member of the Top 10, and first since August when he beat No. 5 Daniil Medvedev at the ATP Masters 1000 in Cincinnati.
It is already two games in a row without suffering breaks for the Czech, who saved the five break opportunities he faced against Jarry in the quarterfinals. His great performance this week has made him the second Czech in a final in Brisbane, and the first since Radek Stepanek in 2009 and 2010.
Now he will seek to equal his compatriot, champion in 2009, in winning this event. In his fourth ATP final (1-2 record in this round), Lehecka will try to win a new title in the Australian summer.
Source: https://www.atptour.com/es/news/brisbane-2025-lehecka-dimitrov-sf
