Reilly Opelka overcomes Kyrgios to reach Houston Final

Saturday, 09 April 2022 at 21:24

Reilly Opelka had not won a match in Houston in his three previous attempts but the American will play in the final tomorrow after taking down Nick Kyrgios 6-3 7-5.

It was another strong display from the Servebot extraordinaire as Opelka never really found much trouble in dealing with Kyrgis who was not at his best but he was still pretty decent. Opelka was serving better than Kyrgios and for the most part, he played better. He dropped only four points on his own serve and never faced a break point in the entire first set.

Kyrgios faced some issues but he allowed only one break point which Opelka converted and that's all it took to win the opening set. The 2nd set was quite similar as Opelka again dominated on his serve. He hit 11 aces winning the vast majority of points but when he finally broke Kyrgios midway through the set he allowed himself to get broke as well.

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It complicated matters a bit but he kept his cool and kept putting pressure on Kyrgios. The Australian was getting increasingly frustrated and he snapped at a very bad time for him. At 5-5 with Opelka having a break point Kyrgios got a point penalty due to audible obscenity after not believing a missed call (according to him) in the previous point.

The penalty gave Opelka the 6-5 lead nad she served it out with 7-5.

Ben Rothenberg

@BenRothenberg

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Another week, another meltdown at an umpire for Nick Kyrgios, getting a point penalty for audible obscenity down break point at 5-5 in the Houston semifinals. Kyrgios was still seething over what he thought was a missed call on an earlier point. Opelka served it out, 6-3, 7-5.

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