Brisbane International 2025: Heartbreak for Reilly Opelka, retires four games into final against Jiri Lehecka

Sunday, 05 January 2025 at 10:29

Jiri Lehecka is the champion at the Brisbane International in a heartbreaking ending for Reilly Opelka. He sealed the title five games into the final against the big American as the latter retired due to injury.

Lehecka himself has struggled with major injury problems with his career nearly getting derailed after announcing himself with his first ATP title in 2024. He had a back injury in the summer and only returned in Antwerp in October so like Opelka has some catching up to do.

But Lehecka who won Adelaide last year won't have that massive chunk coming off now from his rankings. He will defend that title next week and will be one of the favourites to do so but won't have the issue now so may still withdraw.

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Albeit the final was a non-starter, Opelka has had a pretty incredible week. The American took out Novak Djokovic in one of the biggest wins of his career and unlike most who would falter after doing so, he managed to back it up. He saw off Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard yesterday in a battle of the so-called serve bots.

But pulling up after going 4-1 down, it seems like it came a little bit too soon in his comeback to play one more match. He cited back issues that have plagued him all day and handed Lehecka the title.

Opelka was announced as a late addition to the line-up at the ASB Classic this next week but whether he plays remains to be seen. As ever with sport, the complexion of injuries and illness can change day to day and could just be that Opelka had a flare up at the wrong time.

Still though another title for Lehecka and a superb week for the Czech ace in a week that also saw his country shine at United Cup ironically until Tomas Machac pulled up with cramp so the reverse of the Lehecka-Opelka match.

Jiri Lehecka wins the second title of his career (Adelaide 2024, Brisbane 2025) as Reilly Opelka retires after just 15 minutes (down 1-4) in the Brisbane final.

It's been a week of many retirements in big matches... pic.twitter.com/gCcAEQx22E
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) January 5, 2025

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