NEW YORK, February 18, 2019
Reilly Opelka clinched his maiden trophy on the ATP Tour, winning the second edition of the New York Open. The 21-year-old US-American beat Canadian qualifier Brayden Schnur 6-1, 6-7(7), 7-6(7) in Sunday’s singles final.
Opelka fired 43 aces, winning 88 per cent of his first service points to finish an exciting encounter after two hours and one minute.
New York’s newest skyscraper 🗽
👏👏@ReillyOpelka towers above Brayden Schnur 6-1 6-7(7) 7-6(7) to claim his maiden ATP title at @NewYorkOpen pic.twitter.com/TgsvzwJTbG
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) 17. Februar 2019
“This [title] is definitely what I’m most proud of,” said Opelka. “I was tough mentally, especially losing a lot of first sets this week, and my first serve really helped me out. I was able to play clutch in those big moments.“
Fantastic week for Schnur
Schnur has had a dream week during which he won six matches, including two in the qualifying round, and defeated two Top 50 players Steve Johnson (No. 34) and Sam Querrey (No. 49).
Prior to his deep run at the ATP 250 event in New York, Schnur had never earned an ATP main draw victory (0-5). One week later, he leaves the tournament with his first appearance at an ATP Tour final. When the updated rankings are revealed on Monday, the Ontario native will be knocking on the door of the Top 100, sitting at a career-high World No. 107.
Schnur battled until the very last point for the title. After having saved two match points in the second set, he managed to force a deciding set. The two players were dominant on serve and the match required a final tiebreak to determine the winner. The Canada once again saved three match points before ultimately falling to Opelka.
At the trophy ceremony, it was an emotional Schnur who spoke to the crowd.
“I’m emotional because this has been an amazing week for me. This is something that I dreamed of as a kid and there has been so many people that have helped me along the way. It’s too long of a list to thank them all but from the early mornings, my parents helped me so much. If someone would have told me back in December that I would make an ATP final, I don’t think I would have believed them.“
“This is something I dreamed of as a kid.”
👏👏Heartfelt emotions from first-time ATP finalist @BraydenSchnur 😢😍 pic.twitter.com/w7xpmjlhS2
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) 17. Februar 2019
A recap of Schnur’s week in New York
On Sunday, Schnur defeated 17-year-old Long Island native Cannon Kingsley in the opening round of qualifying.
On Monday, he reached a career-high World No. 154 in the ATP rankings when he beat Alexei Popyrin to qualify for the main draw.
On Tuesday, he earned the first ATP tour win of his career over countryman and Columbia University sophomore Jack Mingjie Lin.
Wednesday, he rallied from 5-2 down in the third set set and saved two match points to beat the No. 3 seed Steve Johnson.
On Thursday, he went to sleep at 3:30 a.m. after his win over Johnson, which finished at 11:37 p.m. on Wednesday.
On Friday, he fired 24 aces and held in all of his 18 of his service games to defeat Paolo Lorenzi by a score of 6-7(7), 7-6(5), 7-5.
On Saturday, he saved five set points in t the first set of his 7-6(7), 4-6, 6-3 victory over No. 6 seed Sam Querrey, making this his second Top 50 win of the week.
On Sunday, he fell in a tightly disputed final after saving five match points against Reilly Opelka.
On Monday, he will reach a career-high No. 107 when the rankings come out.
Krawietz/Mies win first ATP Tour title
Earlier on Sunday, Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies captured their maiden doubles title on the ATP Tour. The all-German combination, who won six ATP Challenger trophies as a team, defeateed Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan 6-4, 7-5. The encounter lasted one hour and 14 minutes.
Maiden 🏆 moment! @AndreasMies and @KrawietzKevin defeat Qureshi and Gonzales to claim their first ATP title together at @NewYorkOpen. pic.twitter.com/rEL9h2pqWA
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) 17. Februar 2019
“This feeling is unbelievable. It’s really a dream come true to us and we’ve worked so hard for this moment,” said Mies.
“This is the best tournament that we’ve played together. We get along off the court and have fun together, so you can see that on the court,” said Krawietz. “It was a pleasure to play in front of such a big crowd today and I was able to get energy from them in the match.”
