New York Post, Tuesday, August 27, 2019nypost.com40
American Opelka stuns No. 11 seed Fognini
By GREG JOYCEReilly Opelka won himself
some birthday plans.
The American made sure
he will be busy on Wednes-
day, his 22nd birthday, play-
ing in the second round of
the U.S. Open after knocking
off No. 11 Fabio Fognini 6-3,
6-4, 6-7, 6-3 Monday in his
first-round opener.
“I don’t celebrate my birth-
day in New York, usually,”
said Opelka, who will meet
Dominik Koepfer in Wednes-
day’s second round.The unseeded Opelka
failed to qualify for the U.S.
Open last year and never got
a wild card to play in the
tournament. But he made his
debut in this year’s main
draw ranked No. 42 in the
world and surged past the
Italian Fognini at a packed
Court 17.
Opelka had his way early
before serving for the match
up 6-5 in the third set. But
Fognini broke and then won
the tiebreaker 8-6, making
Opelka work overtime for
the win. He was happy withthe way he controlled his fo-
cus after the crushing third
set.
“I did a great job of not get-
ting upset,” Opelka said. “It
was tough. I was up a break
earlier in the third and also
served for it. It was just com-
fortable knowing I’ve had
chances to break him multi-
ple times each set. So I knew
based on the history of the
match so far, there was no
reason why I wouldn’t have
other chances to break.”
The 6-foot-11 Opelka
flashed his powerful serve,topping out at 142 mph and
collecting 26 aces. He said
the wind and Fognini return-
ing well forced him to “serve
big,” which put his first-serve
percentage under 50 percent
early. But he finished putting
71 of 124 first serves in play
and winning 79 percent of
those points.
The win was Opelka’s
fourth career Grand Slam
win after defeating No. 10
John Isner in the first round
of the Australian Open earlier
this year and beating Cedrik
Marcel-Stebe and No. 19 StanWawrinka at Wimbledon.
Growing up, Opelka said
his favorite players to watch
included James Blake and
David Ferrer, the latter for
how feisty he was. Opelka ap-
peared to have some of that
in his game while upsetting
Fognini on Monday.
Now he has a chance to
make some more noise with
the No. 11 seed out of his way,
starting with his birthday
match on Wednesday.
“It was fun,” he said. “I did
a great job of staying within
myself.”REILLY OPELKA
6-foot-11 player had
22 aces on Monday.By GREG JOYCEJenson Brooksby is not making
this any easier on himself.
But if he keeps doing what he did
Monday, the decision might just be
made for him.
The 18-year-old American cap-
tured his first Grand Slam win by
beating former Wimbledon finalist
Tomas Berdych 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in
the first round of the U.S. Open.
By advancing to the second round
of the main draw, which he got into
by winning three qualifying
matches last week, Brooksby is
owed $100,000. But he can only ac-
cept it if he gives up his scholarship
to Baylor, where he is signed to en-
roll next January, and turns pro.
“It gets tougher the more I win
here,” said Brooksby, who added
that his decision is still “up in the
air.”
Brooksby said he plans on seeing
how the rest of the tournament
plays out and where his world rank-
ing stands over the next few months
before making a final decision. He
entered Monday at No. 394.
For now, he is just enjoying the
ride.
“It’s amazing,” said Brooksby, who
will face No. 17 Nikoloz Basilashvili
in the second round. “[Berdych] has
been a very good player, obviously,
throughout the last decade and
more. I’m just very excited to getthrough today.”
The Sacramento native met
Berdych on Court 13, and by the end
of the match, it was standing room
only at least three rows deep, with
fans standing on bleachers from
Court 14 to get a peek at the upset.
The crowd roared as Brooksby’s fi-
nal forehand zoomed past the 33-
year-old Berdych to end the match.
“I think the fans like me a lot,
which I’m very appreciative for,”
Brooksby said. “I love their sup-
port.”
Later in the day, the crowd
swelled around a different back-
court as another American teenager
tried to pull off a win of his own.
Zachary Svajda — who, at 16 years
old earned a wild card after win-
ning the USTA Boys under-18 na-
tional championship — took the
first two sets before falling to 37-
year-old Italian Paolo Lorenzi 3-6,
6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 6-2. Svajda appeared to
be battling leg cramps as the mara-
thon match, lasting 4:20, wore on.
Brooksby, meanwhile, had just
finished signing every last auto-
graph by the time the next match on
his court began. He then walked
through the concourse mostly un-
recognized, save for a few fans who
stopped him to take a photo. If he
gets through another round, the
blond-haired kid who wears a bro-
ken-shell necklace may not be so
anonymous, especially with fanscraving to find the next big Ameri-
can tennis player.
“I know that I’m American and
they want Americans to do well,”
Brooksby said. “I appreciate that
they want me to do well.”
Brooksby was here last year, too,
as a wild card after winning the
USTA Boys’ 18s national champion-
ship. He lost to John Millman in
straight sets, but came back to
Flushing a year later feeling better
prepared against Berdych, the for-
mer world No. 4 who has battled in-
juries this year.
“I wasn’t really ready for that
stage yet last year because I hadn’t
played even [ATP] challengers for
the most part,” Brooksby said.
“Now I’ve played more challengers
and bigger tournaments, so I’m
more ready for this stage this year.”
Whether he remains on the big
stage or opts for college remains to
be seen. Brian Boland, the men’s
coach at Baylor, was in attendance
Monday to see Brooksby take down
Berdych. Another win would give
Brooksby the option of earning
$163,000 — or slightly less than four
years of tuition at Baylor.
“It’s definitely [a] financial [deci-
sion],” Brooksby said. “I would get
four years of free college if I went
just for one semester, compared
with the money I earn here. Just
gotta figure all that out.”
[email protected]LIVING THE DREAM:
Jenson Brooksby reacts
after winning a point
during his first-round
victory over Tomas
Berdych on Monday. AP