"One of the best servers in the world": Reilly Opelka admits being 'out-served' by Casper Ruud in Laver Cup opener defeat

America’s Reilly Opelka was full of praise for Norway’s Casper Ruud after he defeated him in the Laver Cup. The two-team competition started on Friday where Opelka faced Ruud in the tournament opener. The contest was expected to be a close one and that’s how it turned out to be.

It was Ruud who gave Team Europe a perfect start as he got the better of Opelka in straight sets with a score of 6-4, 7-6. In the match, service turned out to be the significant difference, where Ruud managed to outclass Opelka. That was not a usual sight on the tennis court: an opponent managed to get the better of Opelka while serving.

Opelka spoke to the media after the match and praised Ruud for his incredible performance. The 28-year-old stated that in his opinion, Ruud is not only one of the best servers in the game but also remains very underrated. Opelka also said that he was not ‘surprised’ to see Ruud’s performance on the day.

“Yeah, I just kind of got out-served there, I'd say, and I played one poor point in the breaker on my own, and that was really it,” said Opelka. “Yeah, I thought I took care of everything I needed to take care of. The court's really tough for a server, that's for sure. But, you know, I thought the way I played would have done the job, or, you know, given me the 50-50 chance that I like against just about anyone, besides Carlos, of course.”

He continued by saying: “His serve, yeah, he's one of the best servers in the world. Yeah. Kind of underrated that way, huh? Not on the tour, not from guys that play him and watch and know. I mean, this guy was two in the world, playing for the number one spot. He was a set away from it, pretty much, at the U.S. Open. I mean, if you do that in today's game with, you know, Novak around and Carlos and Janik, that means you got a big serve and a big four in, at least. He's a great server. I mean, he's really good. It wasn't much of an anomaly on his end. I'm not so surprised. He served maybe better than 80%, which is, you know, I'm sure like above his average by a good bit, but he still was two in the world. I mean, give him some credit. I'm not surprised that he serves really well and has a really big point. I mean, he's had an insanely good career.”

Opelka then went on to highlight the difficulty of playing on a court. Opelka was of the opinion that playing on such a court, it was important for him to be able to defend better, something he couldn’t do as well as he would have liked.

“Yeah, it's just bizarre,” said Opelka. “It's kind of like a sandpaper surface with a ball that really puffs up. But, you know, it's not like, I was also able to use it to my advantage. I won a lot of points for the baseline today because a guy like Kasper, you know, if I give him a high forehand, it's point over no matter where in the court it is. And on a court like this today, I got to be able to defend and work my way back into some rallies. So it works for both sides. Yeah, I may not get 25 aces on the surface, but I'm also going to get some more chances in second, third chances in points that normally I wouldn't. But he just served really well today where that wasn't the case. The one time he didn't serve great, I had a bunch of great points.”