Reilly Opelka serves his way to first-round victory at Miami Open

Reilly Opelka topped Christopher Eubanks 6-3, 7-6 (4) in an all-American first-round matchup on Thursday at the Miami Open.

Opelka, who's playing on a protected ranking as he works his way back from hip and wrist injuries that sidelined him in 2023 and 2024, earned his first match win at an ATP Masters 1000 event since 2022.

The 6-foot-11 Opelka overpowered Eubanks with his serve, earning a 15-6 advantage in aces and winning a whopping 39 of 42 first-service points (92.9 percent). Still, he wasn't quite comfortable with his serve until later in the match.

"The first set I didn't serve well at all, I didn't know what was going on," Opelka said after the match. "I waited until the second set to address it, regroup and think about some technical things. My toss was way off, that happens to me sometimes. As soon as I made that adjustment, it clicked straight away and I knew it was going to be tougher to break me in the second, even though he didn't break in the first. That gave me a lot of confidence."

Opelka saved the only break point he faced and held a 32-16 edge in winners. His next opponent will be Danish 11th seed Holger Rune, who's coming off a run to the finals at the BNP Paribas Open last week in Indian Wells, Calif.

Canadian lucky loser Gabriel Diallo capitalized on his main-draw opportunity and swept past Argentina's Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-3, 6-0. Another lucky loser, Hugo Gaston of France, also advanced when opponent Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan retired down 6-4, 3-1.

Other winners included Coleman Wong of Hong Kong, Jordan Thompson of Australia, Argentine qualifier Thiago Agustin Tirante, British qualifier Jacob Fearnley, China's Yunchaokete Bu, Italy's Luciano Darderi, Zizou Bergs of Belgium and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain.

Five matches are left to go, including one between American up-and-comer Learner Tien against Brazilian 18-year-old Joao Fonseca.

--Field Level Media