{"id":149656,"date":"2025-09-20T17:39:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T17:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/149656\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T17:39:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T17:39:08","slug":"casper-ruud-disagrees-with-what-reilly-opelka-said-about-him-after-their-match-at-the-laver-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/149656\/","title":{"rendered":"Casper Ruud disagrees with what Reilly Opelka said about him after their match at the Laver Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Casper Ruud\u2019s Laver Cup campaign is off to a perfect start after sealing a straight-sets victory over Reilly Opelka. <\/p>\n<p>In the first tie of the event, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/news\/reilly-opelka-says-what-is-totally-bizarre-about-the-tennis-courts-at-the-laver-cup-after-losing-to-casper-ruud\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ruud defeated Opelka<\/a> in one hour and 27 minutes to open Team Europe\u2019s account in their title defence. <\/p>\n<p>The Norwegians\u2019 result was followed up by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/Jakub-Mensik\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jakub Mensik<\/a>\u2018s win over Alex Michelsen, and Team Europe\u2019s triumph in the first doubles match of the tournament to give them a 3-1 lead over Team World.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/casper-ruud\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ruud<\/a> put on a serving clinic against one of the biggest servers on tour in Opelka, who had high praise for his conqueror after their clash. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2236333711-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Reilly Opelka and Casper Ruud meet at the net after their clash on day one of the 2025 Laver Cup.\" class=\"wp-image-131120\" \/>Photo by Ezra Shaw\/Getty Images for Laver Cup<\/p>\n<p>The American hailed him as one of the best servers in the game, to which the former world number two responded: \u201cI\u2019m happy to hear that from him, but no.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI told him at the net, This is not a normal serving day for me. I wish it was, but it\u2019s not. I have to be honest and say that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever been over 80% first serves in and playing really well behind it. So really happy with it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know, I lost early at the US Open, so I had a few more days of practice at home than I would want, but you try to use them for something good, and I guess it paid off for the serve today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ruud bowed out of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/us-open\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">US Open<\/a> in the second round, falling to unseeded Raphael Collignon in five sets.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2236333664-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Casper Ruud acknowledges the crowd on day one of the Laver Cup.\" class=\"wp-image-131119\" \/>Photo by Clive Brunskill\/Getty Images for Laver CupWhat Casper Ruud thought after almost getting broken early on<\/p>\n<p>Team Europe\u2019s first winner added: \u201cIt really got going, the serve. Reilly started great and really almost broke me in my first game, so I guess I just thought, I better serve well today, otherwise it might be tough.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has such a great serve. It is important to serve well yourself. You just try your best in return games.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou get a few chances here and there and try to take them. Luckily, you know, one break was enough, and one mini-break and a tiebreak.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo really happy with my own game and serve, and I stayed focused and really, yeah, determined throughout the whole match.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ruud extended his unbeaten streak against Opelka to 5-0, having never lost to him at a tour-level event since 2019. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Casper Ruud\u2019s Laver Cup campaign is off to a perfect start after sealing a straight-sets victory over Reilly&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[22635,67706,32956,101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-149656","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-casper-ruud","9":"tag-laver-cup","10":"tag-reilly-opelka","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tennis","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}