"I’m playing for free this week": Reilly Opelka handed huge $80,000 fine for Indian Wells poor visibility fracas

Reilly Opelka said he is playing for free this week after a fracas with the umpire at Indian Wells caused him to receive a fine of $80,000. He saw off Holger Rune as yet another semi-finalist from Indian Wells was dumped out at the second round stage.

The big serving American was asked about it as Holger Rune went through similar against him in which Rune complained that a light flashing was hindrance. He said this to the umpire and wanted video review as the crowd booed him. But in the view of Opelka, he has a point after his own incident last week.

“I don’t know. It was valid. If the lights bug him, they bug him. I don’t think he’s making anything up. He played within the rules to do the video review," said Opelka on court as per The Tennis Letter.

"There was no foul play on his side. If that were me I probably would’ve been fined another 80 G’s ($80,000) like I did last week at Indian Wells. They couldn’t figure out how to turn on the lights. I asked for them. And then boom, I got slapped with a nice fine. So I’m playing for free this week.”

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What Opelka is referencing is in fact last week at Indian Wells when he faced Roman Safiullin. The Russian won 7-5, 6-4 but only after Opelka tried to get the match stopped due to bad light.

Opelka led 5-2 in the first set before it all unravelled as he lost the next four games. He was due to serve in the next set but he started complaining to officials about poor light. After being told to continue, he refused to step back on court before saying he needed a medical timeout. It seems that he was slapped with a heavy fine whether $80,000 or a lesser number tongue in cheek.

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