Brisbane International 2025: Grigor Dimitrov back-to-back dream over, Jiri Lehecka and Reilly Opelka on to mens final
Towering American Reilly Opelka – the man that ended Novak Djokovic’s Brisbane International hopes – is one win away from ultimate glory at Pat Rafter Arena.
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Towering American Reilly Opelka, the man that ended Novak Djokovic’s Brisbane International hopes, is one win away from ultimate glory at Pat Rafter Arena.
The 211cm Opelka defied a sore wrist to beat fellow big server, Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, 6-3 7-6 (7-4) in one hour and 26 minutes in Saturday night’s semi-final.
Opelka will now meet the Czech Republic’s Jiri Lehecka in Sunday’s final.
Lehecka progressed to the decider after his semi-final opponent, last year’s champion Grigor Dimitrov, retired on Saturday afternoon at 4-4 in the second set, having lost the first set 6-4, with a hip injury.
There were fears Opelka may suffer the same fate as Grigov, when up 5-2 in the first set, he received medical treatment on his troublesome wrist.
Once ranked as high as 17th world but is now at 293, Opelka was sidelined for almost two years after twice requiring surgery on his wrist, as well as an operation on his hip to remove a benign tumour.
There were fears that his Brisbane International campaign was about to be cut short.
However, after receiving some treatment, 211cm Opelka recovered to win the first set – completing it in style with an ace – in 38 minutes.
But, Mpetshi Perricard, who beat Australian star Nick Kyrgios earlier in the tournament, wasn’t ready to give up without a fight, with a tie-breaker needed to decide the second set.
It was Opelka, who a night earlier had beaten Djokovic in straight sets, who again prevailed to earn the chance to win a fifth ATP title.
“I’m not sweating too much (on the wrist pain),” Opelka said.
“It’s on the other side to where the surgery was – I’m sure I’ll be right.”
Opelka paid tribute to world No.31 Mpetshi Perricard.
“He’s a tough one. He serves as good as anyone,” Opelka said.
Dimitrov’s back-to-back Brisbane title bid over as injury strikes
It’s not the way he wanted to win, but an “aggressive” Jiri Lehecka wasn’t complaining after profiting from the misfortune of defending champion Grigor Dimitrov on Saturday to reach the Brisbane International final.
Dimitrov’s bid for back-to-back Brisbane titles ended in agony when he was forced to retire due to a hip injury during his semi-final against Lehecka at 4-4 in the second set after losing the first set 6-4.
Having had a medical time-out, Dimitrov returned to court but after two serve attempts, the 33-year-old world No.10 could not continue and became the second player in two days to retire during a match after Australian Jordan Thompson did the same – ironically against Dimitrov – in a quarter-final on Friday.
Lehecka, last year’s Adelaide International champion, will meet the winner of Saturday night’s semi-final between American Reilly Opelka and Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in Sunday’s final at Pat Rafter Arena.
“Of course, this is never the way you want to finish a match,” the Czech Republic’s Lehecka said.
“Obviously you want to win, but not like that, so hopefully Grigor is fine, hopefully he will be ready for Melbourne (for the Australian Open).
“I don’t know if it’s something serious, but I just felt that in the last two points he played, he couldn’t move, that something clicked … but the first set and the first half of the second was a good level.
“I think that we both played good tennis. In the first set, I was a bit more solid in the game where I broke his serve.
“He made two mistakes at the net, but overall, it was good tennis from my side. I was focusing on keeping the aggressive game style in going for the points, not to be scared, to play aggressively, and I think that it worked well.”
Lehecka’s preparation for the final was to include a doubles semi-final – in which one of his opponents will be Mpetshi Perricard – late on Saturday night.
“The scheduling, it’s never easy to put everything in order, but I’m the type of guy that when I sign for doubles, I want to play until the end.
“That’s why I don’t play doubles that often, because when I’m not sure, or I’m not convinced that I would finish the game, I don’t really want to play, and then pull out in the second round.
“I decided to play doubles in this tournament in Brisbane (with fellow Jakub Mensik) because it’s the beginning of the year, there was a slight chance that we got lucky, and we were lucky, that we played our first doubles match before our first singles match, which helped me a lot.
“If I speak about (the singles semi-final) it helped me to play doubles, because I played my first doubles match on the centre court, then everything I played was on court number one, so (on Saturday) when I walked on to the court, it was easier for me to see the court, because I had already played one match there.”
Originally published as Brisbane International 2025: Grigor Dimitrov back-to-back dream over, Jiri Lehecka and Reilly Opelka on to mens final
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