Junior Wimbledon champion Reilly Opelka and rising American star Taylor Fritz have both announced their participation at this year's Citi Open for their debuts in July.
Reilly Opelka Makes His Debut
Reilly Opelka, 18, is one of the biggest men in the game at 6'11'' has announced his participation to compete in Washington at the Citi Open, where he will make his debut.
The American giant announced himself in tennis when he won the Wimbledon Juniors title in the summer of 2015. Along the way, he defeated the number three, eleven, number one seed Taylor Fritz and 12 seed Mikael Ymer. He became the second American after Noah Rubin to win the Junior titles at SW19.
Following his win Reilly Opelka said, “It's great knowing that all the competition – there's a high level in the United States – that we have access to practise with each other whenever.”
He also added by saying, “Seeing Tommy hold up the trophy is great for American tennis but then it makes us want to try to do the same.” This after Tommy Paul another American won the French Open just a month before.
Taylor Fritz Joins Fellow American Reilly Opelka In Washington
Taylor Fritz, one of America's fastest rising stars is to play Citi Open in his home country.
Taylor made the final in Memphis with a world ranking of 145 by defeating qualifier and compatriot Michael Mmoh, Steve Johnson, Benjamin Becker, Ricardis Berankis and Sam Querrey before losing to eventual four-time winner Kei Nishikori. Following his loss in the final, Taylor became the youngest American to play an ATP final since 17-year-old Michael Chang back in 1989 and climbed an impressive 43 spots to 102.
Fritz had recently won three Challenger events all over the globe, most recently in Australia in January, just a few weeks before booking a spot in the main draw of the Australian Open after coming through qualification. He faced fellow American and 22 seed Jack Sock, where he bowed out in five sets.
Taylor Fritz who emulates Pete Sampras and Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro said, “I’ve said it lots of times before, I play for myself, so I’m not worried about other people’s expectations, I’m doing it for me, so I just deal with the expectations I put on myself.”
Fritz's mother, Kathy May cracked the top ten in 1977 on the WTA tour. He played a number of different sports growing up, but he knew tennis was his calling. He credits his parents and his support network for helping him get this far.
