Opelka – Lehecka: 05.01.2025 09:30 CEST<\/strong> Reilly Opelka has won four of his last five matches. The big American has been suffering from injuries for the last couple of seasons. He hopes to stay fit and play without any back problems.<\/p>\n Here in Brisbane, Reilly won his opening-round match against Gomez in straight sets. He offered no break points and served great throughout the match. That was the first match where Opelka showed glimpses of his best form. In the second round, Reilly had it hard against Arnaldi. Opelka was on the verge of losing the first set but broke his serve back and turned the first set around. Opelka ended up winning the match through two tiebreaks. Reilly even saved one set point in the first set. In the quarterfinals, Reilly upset Novak Djokovic in straight sets. This was arguably the biggest win of his career. Novak had no answer for Reilly’s serve. The American offered and saved only one breakpoint. After winning the first set through the tiebreak, Opelka broke Novak’s serve at the beginning of the second serve and closed out the match comfortably.<\/p>\n Today, in the semifinals, Reilly defeated Mpetshi Perricard in straight sets. At the beginning of the first set, Opelka immediately broke Giovanni’s serve and kept his serve comfortably, winning the first set 6-3. The second set went to the tiebreak, where Opelka kept his calm, and his experience prevailed.<\/p>\n Jiri Lehecka has won four of his last five matches. He had a great season last year and hopes to continue in that fashion now.<\/p>\n Here in Brisbane, Jiri won his opening-round match against Rune in straight sets. The Czech was excellent under pressure, winning the most important points of the match. Holger Rune could not find his rhythm on the serve, so Jiri broke his serve six times.\u00a0 In the second round, Jiri defeated Nishioka in three tight sets. He struggled to close out the match in the second set but immediately broke back and won in comfortable straight sets. This time, Lehecka served exceptionally well throughout the match and should have won in straight sets. In the quarterfinals, Lehecka defeated Jarry in straight comfortable sets. Once again, Lehecka served well, saving all five breakpoints. He broke Jarry’s serve once in each set, which was enough for another comfortable win.<\/p>\n Today, in the semifinals, Grigor Dimitrov retired mid-match against Lehecka in the second set. Jiri won the first set 6-4. When it was 4-4 in the second set, the Bulgarian received treatment on his groin but unfortunately could not continue the match.<\/p>\n According to the bookies, this should be an almost 50-50 match, but we disagree. Jiri is a better player at this moment. Opelka had a solid run last week, but we believe that he will eventually fail against Lehecka, who has been consistent for over a year. Around this time last year, Lehecka won the title in Adelaide under almost exact conditions. We expect him to start this year in that fashion as well.<\/p>\n That being said, Lehecka winning is a value bet.<\/strong><\/p>\n Value bet\/ the best odds: Jiri Lehecka winning @1.73 @bet365<\/p>\n <\/strong>Main Photo Credit: Albert Cesare-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ATP 250 Brisbane final Opelka – Lehecka: 05.01.2025 09:30 CEST H2H: first meeting Reilly Opelka has won four of his last five matches. The big American has been suffering from injuries for the last couple of seasons. He hopes to stay fit and play without any back problems. Here in Brisbane, Reilly won his opening-round […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5045,"featured_media":58902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17400],"tags":[2307,18755,7605,13325,22,19,835],"class_list":["post-77381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-bets","tag-atp-brisbane","tag-giovanni-mpetshi-perricard","tag-holger-rune","tag-jiri-lehecka","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-reilly-opelka","tag-yoshihito-nishioka"],"modified_by":"David Barisic","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5045"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77381"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77382,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77381\/revisions\/77382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nH2H: first meeting<\/strong><\/p>\nBest Bet to Make<\/h2>\n