Mens Clay Court Championship

10 Apr 2022

The No. 3 seed Reilly Opelka will take on former champion and No. 4 seed John Isner in the ninth All-American final of the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship at River Oaks Country Club on Sunday.

Play begins at 2 p.m. on Stadium Court. The final will be available to watch on ESPN3 and can be viewed here.

This will be the first all-American ATP Tour final on clay since the 2018 US Clay singles championship (Steve Johnson def. Tennys Sandgren 7-6(2), 2-6, 6-4). There have been eight previous all-American US Clay finals.

Opelka (6-foot-11) and Isner (6-foot-10) will face off in the tallest final in tournament history.

They meet for the sixth time on the ATP Tour, with Opelka winning the head-to-head battle 4-1. The Americans squared off in semifinals in Dallas in February and played the longest singles tiebreak in ATP Tour history. Opelka won the tiebreak 24-22 to clinch a 7-6(7), 7-6(22) victory en route to his third career title.

“(John) has had a lot of success here before and has won here before,” Opelka said. “I don’t think anyone likes playing John, but we’ve played each other a bunch. It’s just part of the game.”

With an 18-10 record in the tournament, Isner’s semifinal win now makes him the winningest active player at US Clay, surpassing Sam Querrey (17-11). Isner (36) is the oldest US Clay finalist in the Open Era, and is bidding to be the oldest champion since 33-year-old Andre Agassi won the 2003 title.

After winning the title in 2013, Isner looks to become the fifth player in tournament history to win multiple River Oaks titles. His nine-year gap between title wins would be the second-longest in tournament history.

“(Reilly) has beaten me the last handful of times and has been better than me in those pressure moments,” Isner said. “We have a lot of similarities. We share the same agent. Our parents are friends and we’re friends. (Playing him) it is what it is.”