Opelka & his ‘tennis geniuses’: former Isner coach Boynton strengthens team | ATP tour | Tennis

Adelaide International 2

Opelka and its ‘tennis geniuses’: Former Isner coach Boynton strengthens team

Opelka and Boynton speak to ATPTour.com in Adelaide
January 13, 2026

For more than three years, Craig Boynton coached John Isner, the former number 8 player in the PIF ATP Rankings. Now the American is working with the player most often compared to Isner: 6’11” Reilly Opelka.

Opelka has long learned from former world number 7 Jay Berger, who remains an important part of his team. But he now travels with Boynton, who recently developed Hubert Hurkacz into a Top-10 player.

“He is one of the best coaches in the world and I think I am incredibly lucky between him and Jay Berger,” Opelka told ATPTour.com. “These are just great guys, great people, smart, tennis geniuses, tennis experts.”

It’s important to note that while both Isner and Opelka are among the very best servers in history, they are not clones. Perhaps their biggest similarity is that they jokingly call themselves ‘servebots’.

“They’re two different people. At the end of the day, every tennis player here has the same goal and everyone has different skills,” Boynton said. “Obviously people are going to look at the similarities between Reilly and John, but they are different players.

“Yes, they have some similarities, but they are different in almost every way. They’re just different people, they’re different players, ultimately trying to do the same thing, but they do it in different ways.”

Last week, Opelka destroyed 44 aces in his first tournament of the season, the most he has ever hit in a three-set match on the ATP Tour. The problem was that the 28-year-old lost a final set tiebreak to Kamil Majchrzak.

That made his victory against Alexei Popyrin at the Adelaide International on Monday even sweeter. The four-time ATP Tour title winner, who missed almost two years after hip and wrist surgery, is excited to kick-start his year.

“Especially after last week, I had a really, really tough loss that could linger,” Opelka said. “[That is] something you won’t get over quickly. Maybe it will take ten years to get over that. So I’m happy that I won.”