{"id":80180,"date":"2025-02-22T15:22:52","date_gmt":"2025-02-22T20:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=80180"},"modified":"2025-02-22T15:22:52","modified_gmt":"2025-02-22T20:22:52","slug":"opelka-takes-digs-at-doubles-bopanna-reacts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/02\/22\/opelka-takes-digs-at-doubles-bopanna-reacts\/","title":{"rendered":"Reilly Opelka Takes Multiple Digs at Doubles Tennis, Rohan Bopanna Reacts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reilly Opelka has never shied away from speaking his mind, even if it sometimes comes across as arrogant. <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0A common theme has been his discontent towards doubles tennis.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">A year ago, Opelka, in his Instagram story, said: \u201cGet rid of doubles,\u201d when a fan asked what he would change about the ATP.<\/span>\u00a0The American<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> also once mentioned on X (formerly Twitter) that doubles players are the most overpaid athletes in the world. Now, he is back to being disrespectful towards the discipline.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Opelka Belittles Doubles Players<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/02\/13\/us-open-change-doubles\/\" target=\"_self\">US Open<\/a> decided to change the complete format and schedule of the mixed doubles this year and doubles specialists didn\u2019t take this news well. Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori made a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DF8bUh0ux41\/?igsh=djFhZmN5aTd0c2Vs\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">joint post<\/a> on Instagram, calling it a \u201cpseudo-exhibition\u201d. Opelka replied under the post: \u201cWait\u2026mixed dubs wasn\u2019t always an exhibition?&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Opelka continued his belittling towards doubles players as he replied under an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DF9XwGgul-c\/?igsh=ZjFhbHhvcHdiaDkz\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Instagram reel<\/a>, where he said: <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThey should 100% get rid of dubs. It\u2019s for failed singles players, there\u2019s no such thing as a \u2018doubles specialist\u2019&#8230; they don\u2019t sell a single ticket, they take up practice courts\/physios\/resources, they don\u2019t turn a profit and they complain that they don\u2019t make enough $$. That\u2019s pretty greedy behavior if you ask me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is an extremely bold take from someone who isn\u2019t popular themselves, and barely anyone buys tickets to see him play, especially outside America. I have never heard someone say, \u201cI can\u2019t wait to see Reilly Opelka play.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"F6B9pCHtTWRul3eljGNwbA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2197870686\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'F6B9pCHtTWRul3eljGNwbA',sig:'g9Bklx45Ni3LVYCnnwUSmbxnMczBSzTrDX93GM-v2wI=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2197870686',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Looking at the doubles landscape<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many of those same singles players (some of Opelka\u2019s colleagues) are also happy to take up places in doubles draws (denying entry to many specialists), only to lose, not put full effort in, or withdraw. Sometimes, they sign up with a proper doubles player and then leave them by dropping out of doubles if they advance in singles. Is that not greedy behaviour?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I am not taking a dig at all singles players who play doubles, as a lot of them do it regularly, take it seriously and are pretty good at both disciplines. (You also don\u2019t hear those players talking down about doubles). In fact, many of them credit it with helping them in singles, too. For example, Jasmine Paolini credited starting to play doubles with Sara Errani as one of the reasons she improved so much as a single player. Ben Shelton and Jordan Thompson have also mentioned the advantages of playing doubles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There\u2019s no disputing that doubles tennis does not generate enough interest, and it&#8217;s one thing to dislike doubles, but being so openly insulting to your colleagues and fans of the sport for which you play professionally is just ugly behaviour.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Opelka modified his Instagram bio last night, adding &#8220;#watchmoredoubles&#8221; in an apparent indirect response to Alexandre Muller, who put the same phrase <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Dimonator\/status\/1892769678956614040\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">on camera<\/a> after winning his quarterfinal match against Francisco Cerundolo at the Rio Open. It was a very nice gesture from the Frenchman for his tour colleagues, but Opelka found a way to troll that too.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Rohan Bopanna&#8217;s brilliant Reply to Opelka<\/h3>\n<p>Two-time Grand Slam winner and former doubles No. 1 Rohan Bopanna came through to defend the doubles discipline. He made an impactful <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/rohanbopanna\/status\/1892878254513533074\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">post<\/a> on X:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Playing doubles and earning an income from it has given me the power to give back in ways that truly matter. It has helped underprivileged children discover the sport, provided education for over 30 girls, and built an academy that nurtures future champions. What matters is that it\u2019s changing lives.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He continued, &#8220;Yet, there are those in their positions of privilege who sit back and debate who deserves more or less. They fail to grasp the bigger picture-the true impact of this sport.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Honestly, it&#8217;s not about money or how a player spends it. The point is <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that doubles allow a much broader range of athletes to make a living from tennis for longer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many singles players at Challengers and ITFs lose early and then find a doubles partner to break even in the tournament. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a sad truth that an absolute tennis legend has to plead his case for doubles. Maybe this message from a doubles legend will make Opelka reconsider his stance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Main Photo Credit: Danielle Parhizkaran &#8211; USA TODAY Sports<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reilly Opelka has never shied away from speaking his mind, even if it sometimes comes across as arrogant. \u00a0A common theme has been his discontent towards doubles tennis.\u00a0A year ago, Opelka, in his Instagram story, said: \u201cGet rid of doubles,\u201d when a fan asked what he would change about the ATP.\u00a0The American also once mentioned [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5086,"featured_media":75965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_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":[9,3],"tags":[13556,259,16662,5319,1661,19,9923,48,6457],"class_list":["post-80180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-atp","tag-alexandre-muller","tag-atp-tour","tag-ben-shelton","tag-jasmine-paolini","tag-jordan-thompson","tag-reilly-opelka","tag-rohan-bopanna","tag-tennis","tag-tennis-news"],"modified_by":"Shane Black","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80180","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\/5086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80180"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80197,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80180\/revisions\/80197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}