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Reilly Opelka taunted doubles tennis, reacting to the news of Belgium's Xavier Malisse coming out of retirement to play doubles at the European Open in Antwerp. For the second straight year, former singles World No. 19 Malisse has decided to step out of retirement only to play in the ATP event in his home country.
Responding to a social media post that shared the news of Malisse playing the doubles event of the 2022 European Open and partnering with Diego Schwartzman, Opelka made a sarcastic comment on Twitter.
"#watchmoredoubles," Reilly Opelka wrote, accompanied by a rolling eyes emoji that suggested sarcasm.
Opelka is constantly in a back-and-forth with fans on Twitter. One Twitter user criticized him for his comment.
"SORRY BUT THE X MAN WAS WAY BETTER THAT WHAT YOU WOULD EVER BE. SINGLES OR DOUBLES," read a tweet.
Replying to the same, Opelka clarified that he has a lot of respect for X (or X-man, as Malisse is called affectionately by fans) and that he was just "throwing shade" at doubles tennis.
"Totally agree. Was just throwin shade at dubs in general. Not X, thats mans a legend," Opelka expressed.
Opelka himself has played quite a few doubles events on tour in the past and won his first and only ATP doubles title so far at last year's Atlanta Open, partnering with Jannik Sinner. He has also made three other tour-level finals in doubles, at Queen's Club, the New York Open, and the Swiss Indoors Basel, with John Peers, Steve Johnson, and Taylor Fritz, respectively.
Meanwhile, Malisse and Schwartzman won their opening match at the European Open in Antwerp against the pairing of Raven Klaasen and Marcelo Melo, before bowing out in the quarterfinals with a loss against Tallon Griekspoor/Botic van de Zandschulp.
"I’ve come to despise some things about tennis" - Reilly Opelka
Reilly Opelka recently stated that he has come to hate tradition. He declared that he has started to despise certain aspects of tennis after learning more about art and fashion. Opelka made the comments when speaking about being fined at the 2021 US Open for bringing a different bag onto the court that featured a company logo bigger in size than what is allowed.
"I’ve come to hate tradition. And, obviously, tennis is all tradition," Reilly Opelka said in a recent interview with GQ. "Look at Wimbledon—that’s what it is. And it’s not for me. The more I’ve gotten into fashion and art, the more I’ve come to despise some things about tennis."
Opelka further opined that tennis has a conservative culture because of its business structure. He feels that tennis players and others working in the sport are "scared to be different."
"We’re a solo sport. Anything goes wrong with us, there’s a direct effect. So I think the way the business structure of tennis is set up breeds a sort of conservative culture, where everyone’s so scared to be different," he added.
