👋 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.

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Let’s tennis!

Three Points

🎾 One rough win: It had been almost an entire month since we last saw Coco Gauff compete, having lost in the first round of Wimbledon on July 1st. So, it wasn’t at all clear what we should expect from the world number two and top seed in Montreal. To say she was rusty was an understatement. In her 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 win over Danielle Collins on Tuesday night, she hit an astounding 23 double faults and 74 unforced errors.

  • What she said: “Making serves in the court was the toughest challenge,” Gauff said after the match. “Maybe if I had cut that in half, it could have been a quicker match.”
  • Noteworthy: This was Gauff’s first win since taking the title at Roland-Garros.
  • On the ground: I watched two of Gauff’s practice sessions in Montreal. Both looked perfectly fine. But, in hindsight, there was a sense of trepidation. In a way, it felt like she was getting her reps in for the first time in a while. Or, perhaps that was just getting back into the rhythm of competing again after a month away.
  • Next: Gauff faces Veronika Kudermetova in the third round.

🎾 One unhappy camper: Leylah Fernandez criticized the schedule in Montreal after losing her first-round match against Australia’s Maya Joint on Tuesday, saying she received “a lot of promises” that she would get her preferred time slot in the night session, which would give her extra time to recover from her winning week in Washington. “I did not receive that,” she said. “That hurt me because I was very looking forward to be playing at night, but I guess it's a little bit political issues at that point.”

  • Pushback: National Bank Open tournament director Valerie Tetreault responded that the promise she made was that she would “fight so that she could have the time she wanted.” In the end, Tetreault said she wasn’t able to convince the WTA Tour to put Fernandez on in the night session.
  • One exception: In a statement, Tennis Canada said an exception had already been made for Fernandez by giving her an extra day to travel and recover: “WTA protocols mean first-round matches need to be completed before second-round matches are played, ensuring fairness to all players,” Tennis Canada said in a statement. “Given Leylah won the title in Washington on Sunday, she was not able to arrive in Montreal until the early hours of Monday morning. As a result, the WTA made the decision to play her opening match in the latest possible first-round slot.”
  • Yes, but: If the National Bank Open hadn’t so drastically changed its schedule to a 12-day event and begun on a Sunday this year, there would not have been an exception to be made. In other words, making it seem like you’re accommodating a player in the middle of your money grab is poor form.

🎾 Mixed in: The U.S. Open has announced the teams that have received direct entry into the mixed doubles event — and most of the wild card pairings, as well.

  • Direct entry: Emma Navarro/Jannik Sinner, Paula Badosa/Jack Draper, Iga Swiatek/Casper Ruud, Elena Rybakina/Taylor Fritz, Amanda Anisimova/Holger Rune, Belinda Bencic/Alexander Zverev, Jessica Pegula/Tommy Paul, Mirra Andreeva/Daniil Medvedev
  • Wild cards: Emma Raducanu/Carlos Alcaraz, Madison Keys/Frances Tiafoe, Olga Danilovic/Novak Djokovic, Taylor Townsend/Ben Shelton, Sara Errani/Andrea Vavassori, Venus Williams/Reilly Opelka
  • Still to come: Two wild cards are to be announced in the coming weeks.
  • Intriguing: Paula Badosa, who had withdrawn from the entry list with Stefanos Tsitsipas, is back in with Jack Draper. But will this new team’s health actually allow them to compete?
  • One question: Will all of these stars actually compete? The finals of Cincinnati are the night before mixed doubles will begin.