👋 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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On tap today: Danielle Collins gets philosophical, Alexander Zverev comes up with more excuses, Matteo Berrettini pulls out of Roland-Garros, Novak Djokovic takes on Matteo Arnaldi, plus more in today’s tennis news.

Let’s tennis!

Three Points

🎾 Collins Truth bombs: After defeating Emma Raducanu in a tough three-setter on Wednesday, Danielle Collins was feeling perhaps a bit more philosophical than usual during her on-court interview. Here are a few of the nuggets of wisdom from the woman who always tells it like it is.

  • On being tested: “I think it’s more rewarding when you win a tough match versus one that was easy,” said Collins. “A lot of times when you win easy, it’s just about how bad the other player played, right? So, it’s better if it can be a little bit close to come out with these wins.”
  • On self-expression and success: “I think to be good at anything, self-expression is really important. There’s not too many successful people in the world that feel like they can’t be themselves. I think you have to be yourself, and I’m a competitor at the end of the day.”
  • On knowing who you are: “I’m not meek and mild. I’m not someone that is going through life quietly, and I want to succeed. I know what it takes to succeed, and at this level, you have to compete and this is what competing is about. It’s about bringing the energy, showing positive emotions, sometimes showing negative emotion and being upset with yourself, but then trying to work through those moments...I think it can be hard in the world that we live in today because of the noise and because of the things that people say and people do, and criticism and this and that. But at the end of the day, if you go out and try to be yourself, compete hard and do the best you can, good things to happen.”
  • On knowing your space: “We’re on a changeover,” Collins told a cameraman during the match. “You don’t need to be that close to me and you don’t need to be on top of Emma. It’s wildly inappropriate.”

🎾 Pattern recognition: When Alexander Zverev lost to Lorenzo Musetti last week, he unleashed a long list of excuses as to what happened, including some truly delusional views. This week, after losing to Alexandre Muller on Wednesday in Hamburg, a new, literally unbelievable alibi emerges: vomiting dozens of times with a 103-degree temperature the night before.

  • What he said: “For the fact that I threw up 37 times and had a fever of 39.4 degrees (103 degrees Fahrenheit) all night, that’s actually quite okay,” Zverev said after his match. “I think there are two players in the whole world who would have taken to the court today. I’m one of them. And I’m really proud of that.” He added: “I think I played a solid and good match. But he realized at some point that I wasn’t feeling well and then went on playing the points for as long as possible. That was clever on his part.”

🎾 Matteo out: Matteo Berrettini, who would have been seeded at Roland-Garros, pulled out of the clay court major on Thursday with an unspecified injury. In his last two tournaments, he has retired against his opponents: Ruud in the third round of Rome and Draper in the third round of Madrid. This will make for the fourth year in a row that the Italian has been absent from Roland-Garros.