Reilly Opelka has been prone to frustrated outbursts during his career at umpires, leading to him paying a high price in fines.
Opelka reached the round of 32 at the ongoing 2025 Cincinnati Open. That included a superb 7-6, 6-4
victory against the No. 6 seed Alex de Minaur, one of the American's best moments of the previous few years.
His huge serve and weak return mean Opelka's matches are usually decided by small margins, regardless of who he is playing. That gives him a higher chance of beating top players but also of being upset himself.
Opelka might have gotten even more wins during his career had he not been distracted by rows with umpires. The 27-year-old provided fans with an insight into how much criticizing umpires can cost players.
In a social media post, Opelka shared a document from the
ATP, which stated he would be fined $40,000. Rather than apologize or take the matter seriously, Opelka poked fun by asking the ATP if he could determine who receives the fine.
"Can I at least pick the charity that this is going to? @atptour"
The former world No. 17 also replied to a tennis-related account, which noted the $40,000 fine and asked if the system should be adapted. Opelka responded by revealing the actual total was $90,000.
"90K in total, but who's counting :)"
The other element of Opelka's post was sharing his fine details from a match earlier this year at the 2025 Indian Wells Open against Roman Saifullin, which the American lost 5-7, 4-6 after having an uncharacteristically lackluster serving day.
Opelka was given two separate fines, totaling $54,600, for how he spoke about the umpire, Nacho Forcadeli. The first $30,000 was for a code violation given for unsportsmanlike conduct after claiming to be injured when wanting the lights turned on due to poor visibility.
After receiving that code violation, Opelka could not resist attacking the umpire, and did it by directly addressing Safiullin, saying "Sorry, Nacho, Roman is an idiot.", leading to the second $24,600 fine.
Opelka accompanied his post by sharing the document with the caption "The i word can be expensive @atptour." That referred to him calling Forcadelli an idiot during his words to Saifullin in Indian Wells.
Those fine amounts do feel steep, and becoming frustrated during matches can happen to all players. However, it is also important to promote respect for umpires, who often have a hard time managing different personalities on the court.
Carlos Alcaraz had a heated moment with an umpire during his match against Luca Nardi at the Cincinnati Open. The five-time Grand Slam champion did not like being told to remove his Evian label because it is not a tournament sponsor.
Alcaraz pointed out that the umpire was responsible for not noticing the Evian label sooner and refused to remove it for that reason.