Reilly Opelka’s comeback to tour-level tennis ended Saturday at the hands of fellow American, 19-year-old Alex Michelsen, in the sem.finals of the Infosys Hall of Fame Open.
Michelsen, the No. 3 seed, returned to the final with a 6-2, 6-0 win, ending Opelka’s effort in his first tournament since 2022. The teenager won 10 straight games from 2-2 in the opening set to finish the match in just 59 minutes. The youngster saved two break points in the first game of the match, and another in the hold he earned to lead 3-2, and only lost three points on serve for the rest of the match.
The Southern California native reached his first career tour-level final in Newport 12 months ago, losing to Adrian Mannarino, and will bid for his first career title against either No. 2 seed Marcos Giron or No. 4 seed Chris Eubanks, who play in Saturday’s second semifinal.
“At the beginning, he was having break points on my serve and I was like, ‘This is going to be one of those matches that’s going to come down to the wire,’ and then I honestly didn’t miss a return when I touched the ball,” Michelsen said afterwards. “Probably the best returning day of my life, maybe besides last year against John [Isner] in the semis, but I did it again in the semis, so I’m pretty happy with that.”
