Reilly Opelka takes another swipe at doubles players saying they ‘are the most overpaid athletes in the world’

Shahida Jacobs
Reilly Opelka shares a light-hearted moment

Reilly Opelka is really not a fan of doubles in tennis as the American has once again “thrown shade” at the format.

Back in October Opelka made his feelings about doubles clear when he decided to comment on a post about Belgian Xavier Malisse coming out of retirement to play in the doubles at the European Open in Antwerp.

“#Watchmoredoubles 🙄,” he wrote sarcastically and later added that the tweet was not aimed at Malisse, but at doubles, saying: “Was just throwin shade at dubs in general. Not X, thats mans a legend.”

And he has again taken aim at the format and doubles players with the latest round of criticism starting when he created a poll asking: “Which is tougher?” Pickleball or doubles? The latter was voted as tougher as it scored an overwhelming 80.6% of the votes.

A user then asked the big-serving Opelka about playing doubles at Grand Slams, writing: “think you’d be a top 5 dubs player if you wanted, probably more fun to play a non strenuous match on your slam off days than practice, everyone in the world would want to play with you, and there’s ok money in it.”

The world No 38 replied: “Theres wayyy too much $$ in dubs.”

He then doubled down, stating: “Dubs players are the most overpaid athletes in the world.”

Opelka enjoyed his best season on the ATP Tour this year as he won two singles titles – the Dallas Open and US Men’s Clay Court Championships – while he also finished runner-up at the Delray Beach Open.

In terms of prize money, the 2022 US Open singles champions received $2,600,000 while the winning doubles team earned $688,000. At an ATP Masters 1000 event like the Indian Wells Open, the singles winners were handed cheques of $1,231,245 while the doubles team $426,010.

Opelka received $90,495 for winning the US Men’s Clay Court Championship in April while the doubles winners earned $31,440.

And when asked to explain why he thinks they are overpaid, he replied: “They dont sell a single ticket outside of the UK, unless its singles players playing doubles. For example, Indian Wells.”

Someone then had a dig at the big-serving American, stating: “Yeah but it’s just poor marketing by the ATP. Doubles is way more entertaining then watching some 7 footer blast aces all day…😗”

And the final reply from Opelka on the topic was: “Agreed.. but for some reason when I play [Daniil] Medvedev, Casper [Ruud], or Rafa [Nadal] people seem to watch.. dubs guys dont get opportunities to play those matches.”

And for the record, Opelka has played doubles matches on the ATP Tour and he won the AT 250 Atlanta Open alongside Jannik Sinner in 2021 while he also has three runners-up trophies.