Tennis giant brutally digs out umpire in bizarre message to ballboy on comeback trail

Tennis star Reilly Opelka sent a brutal message to the umpire during his round two victory at the Infosys Hall of Fame Open.

Opelka endured a torrid year of injury torment, which had seen him miss all of the 2024 season before making a return in Rhode Island this week.

The 26-year-old got off to a strong start against Constant Lestienne, with Opelka beating his French opponent by virtue of a tie-break in the third set.

It set up a second-round clash against Adrian Mannarino, which Opelka also won by two sets to one, triumphing 4-6, 6-3, 4-6 over the French No.3.

But despite his long injury layoff - over one year in between matches - it didn’t take long for Opelka to return to his usual fiery self, with the close-to-seven-foot athlete sending a pointed dig at umpire Fergus Murphy.

Sharing a not-so-quiet word with one of the on-court ballboys, Opelka said: “You gotta be quick or Fergus [Murphy] will give me a lot of time violations. He is obsessed with it!".

It isn’t the first time Opelka has called out Murphy either, as back in 2022 the American claimed the umpire didn’t properly understand the game because he’d never played tennis before.

Having been called out for taking too long on his serve, Opelka said: “You’ve got to think mate. There are clumps of clay near the baseline, which you won’t know because you’ve never played tennis.

“So when I bounce the ball it’s going to roll somewhere, so you either let me clean it and give me two extra seconds.

“Or I’m going to bounce it and the ball kids got to get it and I’ve got to use another ball. Just use common sense, if you were a player you’d have known, but you weren’t.”

Clearly unhappy with the Irish man in the middle, Opelka finished off his rant by saying: “F*** man!”

There were no such expletives this time, possibly because Opelka beat Mannarino to set up a quarter-final clash against Mackenzie McDonald at his first post-injury tournament.

It marks a stellar return for Opelka, who had previously held concerns about whether he’d be competing on-court again this year.

Speaking after his round-one win, he commented: "It is what it is. It's part of sports. Luckily, I feel like I'm just kind of picking right back up from where I left off. From where I was a couple months ago, this is a great step for me.

"I wasn't sure if I'd be playing this year or not, but I feel really good for now about my body, knock on wood. It seems to change every week but it's definitely heading in the right direction."