Medvedev is among the top three best returners in the world: Reilly Opelka

America’s lanky Tennis player Reilly Opelka admitted that it is difficult to hurt and disrupt Daniil Medvedev after he lost his maiden ATP 1000 Masters final in Toronto. The Russian clinched his fourth ATP 1000 Masters title as he defeated the American convincingly by 6-3, 6-4 to win the National Bank Open.

Opelka admitted that Medvedev is among the top three best returners in the world. In fact, Opelka’s serve is his strength as he stands tall at 2.11 metres but Medvedev was up to the mark in the final.

On the other hand, it was a good tournament for the American as he won against top players like Nick Krygios, Grigor Dimitrov, Lloyd Harris, Roberto Bautista Agut and then defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas in three sets in the semifinal contest.

However, Medvedev was too good for Opelka in the final and the Russian was able to dominate the contest.

“It’s hard to disrupt him, hard to hurt him, hard to really hurt him,” Opelka said. “Medvedev is the top three best returners in the world, you could say. I’d say especially for a big guy, maybe he’s No. 2 behind Novak for a server like myself, because he’s long.

“He can afford to stand far back, because he’s lanky. He has a really long reach. He’s got a good wingspan… Yeah, and he’s fast. He’s a good athlete… As fast as he is able to get out of the corners quickly, he’s able to play deep back in the corner to me. Yeah, it’s tough. There’s not many answers when he’s on like he was today.”

It was a good week for the American and he added that he is going to take a lot of confidence from his good show and he will keep working hard on his game.

“The discrepancy and level between me and those guys, it’s extremely small. It’s already small for anyone in general, but even for me it’s always going to come down to a couple of points,” Opelka said.

“So it’s just about the details, and I’m not gonna — I’m confident, obviously I’ve won matches, I’ll have some expectations of myself, but I’m not going to be riding this win for too long… Or not a win, but this week.

“I think this week was a great example of using that optimistic mindset as much as possible. I think it can extend some weeks, even if it’s just one tournament per year, maybe two a year. I mean, look at what this does for my ranking. That’s all it takes.”