Eleventh seed David Goffin survived a long five set encounter with American teenage qualifier Reilly Opelka, edging through 64 46 62 46 64.
Opelka had impressed in qualifying, winning all three matches without dropping a set, but the eleventh seed was always going to be a very tough encounter and so it proved.
The American teenager had a played a magnificently intelligent match, focusing on his serve before pushing at exactly the right times to frustrate the Belgian, but fell away late in the fifth with a loose service game that was punished by the seeded player.
Goffin had taken the first set, breaking the 6’11 Opelka serve in the third game, with the set going with serve thereafter.
The second set stayed with serve through the early and middle parts of the set. Former Wimbledon junior champion Opelka was demonstrating surprising mobility for such a tall player, winning a good portion of the medium rallies, as his forehand held Goffin at bay when the serve was returned. It was to be Opelka who stole the set, applying pressure as Goffin attempted to stay in the set at four-five, breaking the Belgian’s serve. Opelka frequently took heavy cuts at the Goffin serve, and his persistence paid off, the break levelling the scores at one set all.
The third set was the most one-sided as Goffin rebounded from the loss of the second set by breaking immediately. He settled quickly with his own serve, denying Opelka any break points, and added some gloss to his side of the scoreboard for the set by adding a second break of serve.
It seemed that Goffin would then go on to take the match, but Opelka’s serving stats unsurprisingly improved dramatically from the third set, limiting Goffin to one missed break point chance. Opelka then mirrored his own efforts from the second set, by putting Goffin under significant pressure with the Belgian serving at four-five.
Opelka created a set point against the Goffin serve with a superb lunging forehand cross court return winner, and he drew a backhand error to level the scores at two sets all.
Opelka was the first to apply serious pressure in the fifth. With Goffin serving at two-three Opelka got to deuce and twice forced break points with impressive forehand winners. Goffin pulled himself out of the hole though, engineering an unbalanced return from Opelka to escape with the final set still on serve.
Though he had escaped at two-three, Goffin was again taken to deuce at three-four, the heavy returning of Opelka continually putting the ATP World Tour finals alternate on the defensive. Again he left with the score level.
Opelka then finally crumbled, a forehand flying long, and another in the net, followed by a double-fault, resulting in the break of the serve for the pre-match favourite. Goffin would serve for the match after the change of ends.
Goffin ensured he avoided the fate he had suffered with the late breaks of the second and fourth sets, holding to love to secure a win that at certain points in the fifth set had looked distinctly unlikely.
Goffin, having escaped one qualifier, could face another in the second round. He plays either Radek Stepanek, who also qualified, or Dmitry Tursunov.
This match continues a trend of seeds surviving matches that had looked unlikely to force five set thrillers in the first round. Goffin joins the likes of Kei Nishikori, Marin Cilic, Stan Wawrinka, Alexander Zverev, and Viktor Troicki as seeded players on the right side of five-set thrillers so far. In contrast, only one seeded player has fallen in such a scoreline, that being Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
