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Reilly Opelka Upsets Stefanos Tsitsipas In Toronto Semifinals
By Burton Vanderfliet, Lawn Tennis Analyst, Posted: Sunday, August 15, 2021 12:30pm PST USA
Reilly Opelka Upsets Stefanos Tsitsipas In Toronto Semifinals Toronto-- Saturday in the semifinals of the National Bank Open, the unseeded American Reilly Opelka continued his demolition of the singles draw as he upset the 3rd seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 6-7(2-7), 7-6(7-4), 6-4 to reach today's final.

Both players used powerful serves and groundstrokes to hold serve to reach the set one tie breaker.

Opelka netted two down the line forehands as well as struck a volley and backhand long to fall behind 2-5 before Tsitpipas struck two consecutive down the

Reilly Opelka of the USA
Lawn Tennis
The 6 feet 11 inches tall Opelka revealed a smart serve and volley play in the second set tie breaker to lead 5-3.

tee aces to take the tiebreaker.

Set two as well remained on serve as the players entered a second tie breaker.

Opelka revealed a smart serve and volley play to lead 5-3.

Then Tsitsipas double faulted trailing 4-6 to drop the set and level the match at one set all.

Tsitsipas, who had already been warned for receiving illegal coaching, then received another warning for racket abuse.

Serving down 2-3 deuce in the final set, Opelka struck a 115 miles per hour second serve ace out wide which he followed up with a down the line backhand volley winner to hold serve and level the set at 3 games all.

Opelka took a 30-40 lead in the Greek's following service game after two Tsitsipas double faults and an Opelka down the line backhand return winner.

Tsitsipas then framed a crosscourt backhand to drop his serve in the only break of serve of the day.

Tsitsipas in his anger struck a ball high into the stands which resulted in a code violation for ball abuse and a point penalty which sent Opelka ahead 6-7, 7-6, 4-3 15-0.

Opelka reached 5-3 following a fast hold of serve before Tsistsipas held serve at love to reach 5-4.

The 6 feet 11 inches tall American struck a down the line forehand volley winner and an overhead winner to reach 40-0 and match point before Tsitsipas netted a forehand return to end the match after two hours and 33 minutes of play.

The victory would be Opelka's first versus a top five ranked player.

In today's final, Opelka takes on the top seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia at 1:00pm PST USA.

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