👋 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.

New to Court Theory? Sign up for free!

Let’s tennis!

Five Points

🎾 The pressure: Coco Gauff may have won her second-round match against Donna Vekic in straight sets on Thursday night, but there are some concerns — and it’s not the forehand or her serve this time. During her post-match news conference, she admitted it was “the worst I’ve ever felt on the court.” It looked that way, too. At the end of the second set, the third seed wiped away tears and was visibly shaking, even after she won it in a tiebreak.

  • What she said: “I think it was just nerves and just pressure, honestly, and I’m someone that usually can thrive on that. There’s been a lot on me this tournament, more than usual, which I expected coming in,” she said. “So yeah, basically what you saw out there was what it was, and I was able to reset through it.”
  • Noteworthy: Gauff is facing competitive pressure and external pressure. If it’s showing up this early in the tournament, does it get resolved or does it keep building? We’ll have to wait and see.
  • Worth a watch: Take the three minutes to watch her on-court interview in which she expresses the emotions of the match and how she got through it. (And try not to be distracted by the interviewer calling her “Simone” right off the bat.)
  • Next: Gauff faces Magdalena Frech on Saturday.

🎾 Greek whine: There goes Stefanos Tsitsipas again. The Greek not only lost a five-set battle against Daniel Altmaier after holding a match point, he also lost fans for his post-match behavior...again. After the defeat, Tsitsipas shook hands with Altmaier, and said, “Next time, don’t wonder why I hit you, OK? No, I’m just saying if you serve underarm ... if you serve underarm.” That was a double reference to Altmaier serving underhand and Tsitsipas attempting to hit Altmaier multiple times in the match and connecting once in the torso, which earned a long stare from Altmaier.

  • Worth repeating: In the wise words of Taylor Townsend: Learn how to take a loss, Stefanos.
  • To be sure: Going at your opponent at the net is a completely legitimate play. Stop with the nonsense apologies each time and own it.
  • But, also: Serving underhand is a legitimate tactic (even if we here at Court Theory aren’t huge fans). Whining to your opponent about it and threatening him is so, so incredibly weak.
  • Kudos: That belongs to Altmaier, who stepped away from Tsitsipas at the net and wanted nothing to do with that nonsense.

🎾 Returned and ready: I’m just back from my third trip up and back to the U.S. Open so far this year — an advantage of being a relatively short train ride from New York. Courtesy of Grand Slam Tennis Tours, this was my office for the day.

🎾 Your attention, please: Just a few notes while you’re catching today’s action...

  • In the Court Theory U.S. Open preview, I called out Jenson Brooksby as a potential dark horse in the tournament. In four and a half hours, he almost pulled off a win over 24th seed Flavio Cobolli, but couldn’t quite get over the finish line.
  • Men’s doubles kicks off today after several highly entertaining women’s doubles matches yesterday. Be sure to catch some of that action.
  • One curious match: Arthur Rinderknech vs. Benjamin Bonzi. That’s a match-up between two later-stage career Frenchmen, both of whom have never made it past the third round of a major. After today, one of them will.
  • The match we’re not missing: Jan-Lennard Struff vs. Frances Tiafoe. And Court Theory subscriber William Bender wrote in to remind us of their epic battle on the grass of Stuttgart, but not to be outdone by their epic battle on the clay of Roland-Garros (which inexplicably is void of highlights on the interwebs).

🎾 Catch-up time: Are you just getting started with this year’s U.S. Open? We’ve got you covered! Check out the Court Theory guide to the U.S. Open, filled with all the big questions and fine details you need to enjoy this year’s tournament.