DELRAY BEACH, February 24, 2020
Reilly Opelka battled through two three-setters on Sunday to capture the Delray Beach Open by VITACOST.com title. After beating former World No. 3 Milos Raonic of Canada in the semi-finals earlier in the day, he defeated Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka 7-5, 6-7(4), 6-2 to lift the trophy.
The No. 4 seed of the ATP 250 hard-court event fired 27 aces in the championship match and won 87 per cent of his first-service points to prevail after two hours and nine minutes.
Double duty complete! 💪💪
🇺🇸 @ReillyOpelka completes an astonishing day of tennis, defeating Nishioka 6-2 in the 3rd set to win the title!#DBOpen pic.twitter.com/6xuaD0M3ft
— Delray Beach Open (@DelrayBeachOpen) February 23, 2020
Opelka is the fourth US-American in five years to triumph in Delray Beach. He is now a two-time ATP Tour champion after earning the crown at last year’s New York Open.
“I’m just really proud of the way I fought in the third set. I got an early break and I broke again. Physically I was feeling pretty good. If he broke me and we had to play more tennis, I was fine,” Opelka said of his win against Nishioka.
“I love playing at home. I have a house not far from here, 10 minutes. So I base here, I’ve been here the past 10 years, so I’m very comfortable. It’s going to be an event I play a lot the rest of my career just because I plan on staying in South Florida. I love playing in Delray.”
Bryans win doubles title
Earlier in the day, Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan ended their final Delray Beach Open campaign in familiar fashion by lifting the trophy for a record-extending sixth time after a 3-6, 7-5, 10-5 victory against Luke Bambridge from Great Britain and Ben McLachlan of Japan. The doubles final lasted one hour and 22 minutes.
“It’s amazing to win this title again in our back yard,” said Bob. “I have been staying at home and I got so many friends and family here. They kept us fighting and they kept us focused. Those are the people that have your back.”
Mike added: “It’s cool [to win an ATP Tour title in 20 consecutive seasons]. It makes us feel old, but it makes us feel great that we can win and be this consistent over 20 years. It feels like we are unscathed here, we won our last match in the city. We are always going to have pretty awesome memories coming to Delray.”
