👋 Welcome back to The Daily Theory, our morning rundown to help you stay on top of your favorite sport. I’m Allen McDuffee, your guide to all things tennis.

On tap today, we’ve got: Alexandra Eala’s breakthrough, Gael Monfils setting records, a potential Tsitsipas backslide, Arthur Fils takes on Frances Tiafoe, plus more in today’s tennis news.

Let’s tennis!

Five Points

🎾 The breakthrough: Alexandra Eala is making good on her Miami Open wild card. The 19-year-old from the Philippines has gone through three tough opponents to reach the round of 16, notably defeating Madison Keys on Sunday (but it shouldn’t be missed that she also took out Jelena Ostapenko and Katie Volynets along the way). If you’ve never heard of her, don’t feel bad. The world number 140 has had little exposure outside the ITF circuit and WTA 125 events. But we have a feeling that’s about to change.

  • A Rafa shout-out: “The [Rafa Nadal] academy has been my home for the past seven years,” Eala said after her match on Sunday. “My family should take credit for the foundation that they laid out before they sent me there. But of course, the academy was able to build on that foundation in such a way that I’m able to be where I am now.”
  • How it started: “I got into tennis through my brother and my grandfather,” Eala said. “It started out as a way for me to bond. My parents knew that they wanted me to get into sport, and my grandfather was kind of like a club player. He would go to the club and just play with his friends. Then he coached my brother and a couple of other of my cousins. So I was the next in line to do that and to spend time with him. It eventually blossomed into the career I have now.”
  • Up next: Eala plays Paula Badosa today in the round of 16.

🎾 Disconnected: In the live rankings, Stefanos Tsitsipas is up two spots to number eight in the world from his official ranking of ten. But in terms of form, there’s a bit of rollback during this Sunshine Double compared to his level when he won the title in Dubai just a few weeks ago. In his straight-set loss to Sebastian Korda on Sunday, Tsitsipas seemed passive while also unable to control his unforced error count, which was only complicated by his low first-serve percentage. Was Dubai just the honeymoon phase of a new racket in his hand? It’s something to note as he moves into his favorite part of the year: the clay season.

🎾 A record: Gael Monfils made Miami Open history on Sunday night by becoming the oldest player to reach the round of 16 after he defeated Jaume Munar in a supremely entertaining three-setter. After two hours and 40 minutes and a wild third-set tiebreak, the Frenchman emerged the winner.

  • What he said: “I’ve played so many matches and I know it’s not easy to close out matches with a big atmosphere,” Monfils said after the match of Munar serving for the match at 6-5 in the third set. “If you win the first point, it’s key. Crowd getting involved and then it’s pure experience and pure joy from my side as well.”

🎾 Location not available: When Learner Tien faced Joao Fonseca in the first round of the Miami Open on Thursday, it wasn’t the greatest feeling for the young American to play in an atmosphere that essentially amounted to an away Davis Cup match while playing in his own country. For two-and-a-half hours, a raucous Brazilian crowd took over Hard Rock Stadium until Fonseca walked away with the win 6-7, 6-3, 6-4. At the end of it, Fonseca wrote on the camera lens, “Am I in Brazil?” The moment didn’t go unnoticed by Learner Tien, either. In his Instagram Miami departure post on Sunday, he geo-tagged it far away from Miami.

🎾 An unpopular opinion: Nobody ever accused Emma Raducanu of going with the flow. And that’s certainly true of her opinion on the expanded two-week 1000-level tournaments. While most players are bothered by more time taken away from their schedules with mandatory events that incur more expenses for their teams while receiving the same prize money, Raducanu says she prefers them.

  • What she said: “I think it’s amazing that we get a day in between, to be honest. I think it helps so much with the recovery,” said Raducanu. She added: “I’m quite a big fan of these longer events, just because it gives us time to recover, especially, you know, by the time we finish everything, press, treatment, eating, by the time we get back and I’m second on, I’ll be home, like, 9pm, I think it’s great that I have a day off to recover.”

And, that’s game.

What They Said

It just reinforces a little bit what we all saying that everybody is playing very good, everybody gets really competitive. I think the tour has become, outside even the top 250, super professional. The guy who’s playing Futures, they are very strong. If you’re a little bit off, it’s really tough whoever you are...A lot of players outside the top 100 who come to the top 100 this year are winning many matches, so it’s just reinforced that everybody is super competitive.

-Gael Monfils on why half of the top ten seeds have fallen to players outside the top 50.

Watch This!

🔥 Arthur Fils vs. Frances Tiafoe (3rd round ATP 1000 - Miami): Watch this one for the sheer entertainment value. These are two of the best entertainers on tour with their natural charisma, their mind-blowing shot-making, their gritty competitiveness, and their ability to pull in a crowd. Add on top of all that their rankings: Tiafoe at 17 and Fils at 18. Who wins this one? Your guess is as good as mine. But it will probably come down to which player is the most stubborn.

  • The record: This will be the first time Arthur Fils and Frances Tiafoe have faced each other on tour.
  • On the line: Arthur Fils is getting himself back on track toward the top ten after an injury at the Australian Open sidetracked him for a bit. Now, at a career-high ranking of 18, he’s looking to make another push toward that big goal with a win over Tiafoe. As for Tiafoe, he wants back in the top ten, where he briefly landed almost two years ago. He’ll need to get through Fils, first.

On The Radar

  • Alexander Zverev vs. Jordan Thompson (3rd round ATP 1000 - Miami)
  • Aryna Sabalenka vs. Danielle Collins (4th round WTA 1000 - Miami)
  • Alex de Minaur vs. Joao Fonseca (3rd round ATP 1000 - Miami)
  • Elina Svitolina vs. Iga Swiatek (4th round WTA 1000 - Miami)
  • Naomi Osaka vs. Jasmine Paolini (4th round WTA 1000 - Miami)
  • Taylor Fritz vs. Denis Shapovalov (3rd round ATP 1000 - Miami)
  • Matteo Berrettini vs. Zizou Bergs (3rd round ATP 1000 - Miami)
  • Reilly Opelka vs. Tomas Machac (3rd round ATP 1000 - Miami)
  • Qinwen Zheng vs. Ashlyn Krueger (4th round WTA 1000 - Miami)
  • Marta Kostyuk vs. Jessica Pegula (4th round WTA 1000 - Miami)

📺 Learn how to watch today’s action over at Tennis Watchers.

Read, Watch, Listen

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Which matches are you watching? What news caught your eye today? Hit the comments below!