Opelka and his ‘tennis genius’: Former Isner coach Boynton joins team | ATP Tour
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Opelka and his ‘tennis genius’: Former Isner coach Boynton joins team
Opelka and Boynton interviewed by ATPTour.com in Adelaide
January 13, 2026
Andrew Eichenholz/ATP Tour
Reilly Opelka is chasing his first ATP Tour title since 2022 in Houston.
Andrew Eikenholz
Craig Boynton coached former PIF ATP No. 8 John Isner for more than three years. Now, the player Americans most compare to Isner: 6-foot-11 Reilly Opelka.
Opelka has long learned from former world No. 7 Jay Berger, who remains an important part of his team. But he will now travel with Boynton, who recently developed Hubert Huckacz into a top-10 player.
“He’s one of the best coaches in the world and I think between him and Jay Berger, I’m very lucky,” Opelka told ATPTour.com. “These are great people, great people, smart tennis talents, tennis experts.”
It’s worth noting that while both Isner and Opelka rank among the best servers in history, they are not clones. Perhaps their biggest similarity is that they jokingly call themselves “service robots.”
“They’re two different people. At the end of the day, every tennis player here has the same goals and everybody has different skills,” Boynton said. “Obviously, people will see similarities between Riley and John, but they are different players.
“Yes, they have some similarities, but they’re different in every way. They’re just different people, they’re different players, ultimately trying to do the same thing but do it in a different way.”
Last week, in his first match of the season, Opelka blasted 44 aces, his most in a three-set match on the ATP Tour. The problem was that the 28-year-old lost the final tiebreaker to Kamil Majchrzak.
That made his win against Alexei Popyrin at the Adelaide International on Monday even sweeter. The four-time ATP Tour champion, who has been out for nearly two years following hip and wrist surgeries, is excited to start the new year.
“Especially after last week, I had a really, really bad loss that could continue,” Opelka said. “[That is] Something you can’t get over quickly. Maybe it will take 10 years to get over one of them. So, glad I won. “
