Opelka Withdraws From 2024 Australian Open Amid Continued Injury Struggles

| by Zachary Wimer

Reilly Opelka has been out of tennis for a very long time and will remain out of tennis after more injury setbacks.

It's been well over a year since Reilly Opelka played any kind of competitive tennis for a longer period. He did return late last year in the United States at an ATP Challenger event but basically played only one match, so we can't even say that he really played at all, even though it was a victorious return.

The goal of that brief return was literally to just test himself out ahead of what would have likely been the grand return in 2024. That's not going to happen, as a few retirements leading up to the Australian Open already kind of showed us that something was very wrong and on January 5th, 2024, his official withdrawal from the Australian Open was announced.

It's a huge shame for Opelka because his injury happened literally at a time when he seemingly looked destined for a Top 10 breakout, and now that's not going to happen. We don't even know what his current status is because he's been very secretive about it in the past.

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He doesn't talk about nor provide any major updates so we're kind of in the dark as of right now. What we do know about Opelka is that he hasn't properly played on the ATP Tour since 2022.

The last event he played was the Citi Open in Washington, and that means he's missed quite a few Grand Slams now. He missed the 2022 US Open, 2023 Australian Open, 2023 Roland Garros, 2023 Wimbledon, 2023 US Open, and now the 2024 Australian Open.

That's six in a row, and that's not good for a player who looked on the brink of a major breakout. Let's see whether 2024 brings something new, as this has been quite disappointing. Fingers crossed for the big-serving American.

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