The duel of the giants which opposed in the final of the ATP 250 tournament in Houston the Americans Reilly Opelka (2.11 m, 24 years old) and Jon Isner (2.08 m, 36 years old), returned to the biggest, who imposed in two sets 6-3, 7-6 (9/7) in 1 h 50 min, Sunday.
Opelka (18th in the world) thus won its fourth title, still in the United States like the previous three, its second in 2022 after Dallas in February – where it had already beaten Isner, in the semi-finals -, and the first on clay .
A good omen just over a month from Roland-Garros, the peak of the clay court season, where the Floridian reached the knockout stages last year.
Isner (27th in the world), he failed to add a seventeenth title to his list, in his 30th final on the circuit.
His inability to convert the break points he got (0 out of 7) partly explains his failure in the final on Sunday. Opelka, with a more varied game, and above all more realistic, concretized the only one he had in the first set, which he won.
In the second set, in the decisive game, Isner again missed the mark: passed for the first time in front of the score by going up to the net (5/4), he obtained two set points from a superb backhand passing crossover on service from Opelka. He was unable to convert them, nor the third a little later.
Opelka won the title on his first match point.
It was the sixth face-to-face between the two players: Isner had won the first, in 2016 in Atlanta. Opelka was then only 18 years old. He has since won the next five.
