👋 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: Djokovic’s not upset, Jack Draper’s challenge, Osaka is too back, Olga Danilovic pulls of a big win, Emma Raducan’s plan against Iga, and a whole bunch more.
Let’s tennis!
Five Points
🎾 Who’s upset?: As a follow-on to yesterday’s “Watch This!” match, there was nothing even remotely close to an upset in Djokovic vs. Machac. Unless, of course, you count an upset stomach. Early in the second set, Djokovic doubled over on the court and reportedly suffered from some nausea that also seemed to interrupt his breathing. He declined to offer any details other than to say: “I physically struggled at the beginning of the second [set] for those, whatever, 15, 20 minutes,” Djokovic said. “But I managed to turn things around from an early break loss in the second, re-broke his serve, and then I was break up and held the serve all the way through.” Next up for Djokovic: Jiri Lehecka.
🎾 Get off the court!: We all love a good marathon match. Jack Draper might love them too much. The 15th seed took just over four hours to beat a very in-form Aleksandar Vukic in a thoroughly entertaining five-set match. The problem is, that’s his third five-setter in a row for a total of 12 hours and 38 minutes on court. This is a recurring problem for the British number one at majors, where he just doesn’t have any gas left in the tank when he needs it most. Now, he faces Carlos Alcaraz in the next round. His total hours logged? Less than half of Draper’s at 6 hours and 15 minutes. 😬
🎾 The abs, again: Just as Naomi Osaka was starting to look like Naomi Osaka again, another similarity to the past showed up. A recurring abdominal injury forced Osaka to retire in her third-round match against Belinda Bencic. “I kind of have a history of it since I was a teenager. At least once a year, I’d get an ab strain. For me, I want to say it’s more the way my serve is — it’s quite explosive,” said Osaka, who noted that it got “way worse” following her second-round win over Karolina Muchova.
🎾 Stuck in the mud: This Australian Open, Jessica Pegula wanted to prove that her run to the U.S. Open final wasn’t a fluke and that her quarterfinal curse was behind her. An on-fire Olga Danilovic had other ideas, though, beating the number seven seed, 7-6, 6-1: “I knew I had to have my A-A-A plus-plus-plus game to beat her. In the back of my mind, I really believed in myself.” As for Pegula, she said Danilovic’s served well and her level never dropped, but also: “Conditions were so slow. It was slower than a clay court, it felt like.”
🎾 Learn again: After pulling off the biggest upset in the men’s draw on the biggest stage he’s ever played on, young American Learner Tien quickly became a fan favorite not only for his tennis but also for his on-court interview. Today, with much less rest than his opponent, he takes France’s Corentin Moutet. It will be interesting to see how he handles this test. There’s a physical test after that late-night marathon. But there’s a mental one, too. There will certainly be a bit of a letdown following the highs of that massive win, especially now that he’ll be on a smaller court this time around. And then there’s the Moutet factor, a player who starts and eggs on more arguments than perhaps any other player on tour.
And, that’s game.
What They Said
It will be a very good match for me. Every match I can play against these top opponents, I’m loving it. It’s another opportunity to test my game and see where I’m at. Obviously she’s achieved so much already and I think going into it, I have nothing to lose, I’m just going to swing.
-Emma Raducanu on facing Iga Swiatek in the third round of the Australian Open.
Watch This!
🔥 Madison Keys vs. Danielle Collins (3rd round — Australian Open): This is not a match of who is going to go for it and who is not. It’s a guaranteed slugfest on both ends of the court. In fact, the outcome could be decided by which player takes their foot off the gas at critical junctures. But other potential factors include: which player’s serve goes off the rails and back on track the quickest, which player manages their emotions and nerves the most effectively, and which player has their body fail the least.
- The record: Madison Keys leads this head-to-head 2-1. But the record isn’t particularly enlightening. Keys won the most recent match last year, but it was on red clay. Before that, they hadn’t faced each other since 2020 and 2018.
- On the line: This is (probably...potentially?) the last Australian Open for Danielle Collins. She would probably rather have a win be her final memory in Melbourne instead of the way her last match ended. For Keys, it’s clear she’s redoubled her efforts in the last 18 months. She wants back in the top 10 where she belongs, and the quickest path there is racking up the big points at majors.
Keeping an Eye on...
- Iga Swiatek vs. Emma Raducanu (3rd round — Australian Open)
- Emma Navarro vs. Ons Jabeur (3rd round — Australian Open)
- Taylor Fritz vs. Gael Monfils (3rd round — Australian Open)
- Miomir Kecmanovic vs. Holger Rune (3rd round — Australian Open)
- Alex Michelsen vs. Karen Khachanov (3rd round — Australian Open)
- Elena Rybakina vs. Dayana Yastremska (3rd round — Australian Open)
- Ben Shelton vs. Lorenzo Musetti (3rd round — Australian Open)
- Corentin Moutet vs. Learner Tien (3rd round — Australian Open)
Learn how to watch today’s action over at Tennis Watchers.
Read, Watch, Listen
- The only major missing from Carlos Alcaraz’s resume is the Australian Open, and he says he’ll commemorate the occasion with a kangaroo tattoo if he takes the title this year.
- A surprise hall of fame induction takes one writer (and family) on a journey to discover his grandmother was a 20th century tennis champion, who played —and sometimes beat — the greats of our sport.
- In some sad news on top of devastating news, most of Pam Shriver’s Grand Slam trophies were stolen from her car, where she was temporarily keeping them as she and her family evacuated the wildfires ripping through the LA area.
- Steve Tignor writes that American players have reached another moment of truth at a major.
