John McEnroe says Reilly Opelka has a problem on his serve which is stopping him reaching the top 20 in the world

Reilly Opelka came up short in his opening match at the 2025 Laver Cup.

Returning to Team World after a four-year absence, Opelka took on Norway’s Casper Ruud in the first match of the 2025 Laver Cup.

Fighting hard, Opelka pushed Ruud close in both sets, but struggled to keep up with the world number 12, who produced a world-class serving performance.

Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images for Laver Cup

Eventually, Opelka lost to Ruud in straight sets, 4-6, 6-7 [4-7] in San Francisco, USA.

While Ruud impressed many with his serving efforts, the same could not be said about Opelka, as one tennis legend has now identified the problem with his serve that is holding him back.

John McEnroe says Reilly Opelka must ‘hit his spots better’ if he wants to be a top 20 player

Reacting to Opelka’s defeat to Ruud, ex-Team World captain, John McEnroe, had this to say about the 28-year-old.

“To me, if he wants to get back in the top 20, you can see athletically at seven feet tall, he’s a pretty damn good athlete, but he’s got to hit his spots better on his serve,” he said.

“He doesn’t do that for me consistently enough, and therefore, he becomes more hesitant about coming forward.”

Photo by Eakin Howard/Getty Images for Laver Cup

Opelka was once ranked inside the world’s top 20, reaching a career-high of 17th in 2022, but now sits outside the top 50.

Rank Name Country Points 1 Carlos Alcaraz Spain 11,540 2 Jannik Sinner Italy 10,780 3 Alexander Zverev Germany 5,930 10 Karen Khachanov Russia 3,280 20 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina Spain 2,225 50 Marcos Giron USA 1,000 62 Reilly Opelka USA 895 75 Quentin Halys France 806 100 Emilio Nava USA 633 200 Luca Van Assche France 267

Select players in the ATP top 100

The American currently trails world number 20 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina by 1,330 points, leaving him a long way off the top players on tour.

McEnroe believes adjustments to his serve could fire Opelka back into the top 20, but how does his serve stack up against his ATP Tour rivals?

Reilly Opelka has the seventh-best serve in men’s tennis

According to ‘Serve Rating’, Opelka has one of the ten best serves in men’s tennis.

Rank Name Serve Rating 1st Serve % Win % on 1st Serve Win % on 2nd Serve % Service games won Average aces per match 1 Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 297.3 64.5% 79.2% 53.7% 89.6% 14.9 2 Jannik Sinner 296.3 60.6% 78.9% 59.6% 92.0% 6.7 3 Taylor Fritz 296.2 63.9% 79.4% 54.3% 89.3% 11.1 4 Alexander Zverev 295.2 71.2% 75.2% 54.7% 88.3% 7.9 5 Novak Djokovic 294.0 66.5% 76.8% 55.9% 88.8% 8.0 6 Matteo Berrettini 292.2 68.8% 75.8% 52.2% 86.6% 10.2 7 Reilly Opelka 291.9 61.4% 78.9% 51.4% 88.3% 16.1 8 Ben Shelton 291.7 65.1% 75.8% 55.7% 88.7% 9.4 9 Carlos Alcaraz 287.4 64.1% 74.7% 57.3% 88.0% 5.9 10 Brandon Nakashima 286.3 66.0% 74.5% 53.4% 84.9% 8.7

ATP Tour Serve Rating (Past 52 weeks)

Unsurprisingly, Opelka leads the ATP Tour for average number of aces per match with 16.1, although it’s elsewhere that he often struggles.

His first serve % is lacking compared to some of the other top servers on tour, and he has similar issues with his win % on second serve.

Photo by Kate McShane/Getty Images for LTA

Should he improve those areas of his game, then perhaps Opelka could find himself charging back towards the top 20 before too long.

For now, Opelka will focus on the Laver Cup, supporting his team on day two.

Only time will tell if Opelka will play another match at the 2025 Laver Cup, having been omitted from Saturday’s line-up.

Day two line-up

• 1. Alexander Zverev vs Alex de Minaur
• 2. Holger Rune vs Francisco Cerundolo
• 3. Carlos Alcaraz vs Taylor Fritz
• 4. Holger Rune/Casper Ruud vs Alex de Minaur/Alex Michelsen

Alexander Zverev and Alex de Minaur will kick off day two of the Laver Cup at 14:00 PDT on Saturday, September 20.