👋 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: Novak Djokovic raises some red flags, Carlos Alcaraz is caught in a cycle, a day of returns in Madrid, Holger Rune takes on Flavio Cobolli, plus more in today’s tennis news.

Let’s tennis!

Three Points

🎾 What did you say about this sport?: Is Djokovic over it? It might seem that way after the man who holds all the records was caught dropping a series of f-bombs on the practice court in Madrid. During a session this week in Madrid with coach Andy Murray, Djokovic can be heard muttering in Serbian: “F*** this sport. F*** tennis. F*** everything.” Of course, the expletives aren’t the problem. This is more about his state of mind after a less-than-stellar start to the clay season. And it’s quite a juxtaposition to his quote in the What They Said section below.

🎾 The injury report: Paula Badosa has pulled out of yet another tournament after it starts, but before she plays a match — this time on home soil. Karolina Muchova has also withdrawn from Madrid with an undisclosed illness. Those two join Anhelina Kalinina and four men, most notably Carlos Alcaraz, in withdrawing from the tournament.

  • Back in action: Today’s matches bring back into action some players worth keeping an eye on after some recent pauses: Taylor Fritz, Elena Rybakina, Qinwen Zheng, Daria Kasatkina, Ons Jabeur, Amanda Anisimova, Hubert Hurkacz, and Sofia Kenin.

🎾 One note: After watching the first episode of the Carlos Alcaraz miniseries on Netflix, one thing stands out more than anything else: déjà vu. Here we are exactly one year later, and Alcaraz is facing the same set of injury issues on home turf that he struggled with a year ago. Granted, the injuries are different. But the questions over his fitness, the methods of training, whether or not he’s over-training, and if he has the mental strength to “enjoy the suffering” remain the same.

And, that’s game.

What They Said

I’m still trying to stay and represent the older guys, the older generation. Hopefully that brings the positive effect to the tournaments and to the tour itself. That’s also one of the reasons why I keep on playing, because I feel like it also helps tennis still thrive on the attention and crowd coming in and watching tournaments and getting interested. The sport should outlive everyone, the sport will outlive everyone, and it’s more important than anybody individually. We’re all here in the service of the sport.

-Novak Djokovic on what it means to be the sole survivor of The Big Four.

Watch This!

🔥 Flavio Cobolli vs. Holger Rune (2nd round ATP 1000 - Madrid): Based on their only clay court match from last year, this has all the makings of a great battle. More than that, this is a temperature check match for Rune, who won last week in Barcelona. So far this year, title-winners have struggled to return the next week and perform well. How will Rune perform on this front? We’ll have to wait and see.

  • The record: Holger Rune leads the head-to-head over Flavio Cobolli 1-0. Their only meeting came in a thrilling five-set match on clay at last year’s Roland-Garros, which ended in a stress-inducing tiebreak.
  • On the line: Rune desperately wants to prove that taking the title in Barcelona wasn’t a fluke. An early exit in Madrid is the absolute opposite of that. Meanwhile, Cobolli is looking to get back on track this clay season after taking the title in Bucharest, but then losing early in Monte Carlo and Munich. Rune would be a big win for the young Italian.
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For real-time match commentary and conversation, follow Court Theory on Bluesky.

On The Radar

More tennis matches we’re monitoring today:

Madrid - WTA 1000 (Clay)

  • Alexander Zverev vs. Roberto Bautista Agut (2nd round)
  • Gael Monfils vs. Andrey Rublev (2nd round)
  • Elena Rybakina vs. Bianca Andreescu (2nd round)
  • Arthur Rinderknech vs. Casper Ruud (2nd round)
  • Taylor Fritz vs. Christopher O’Connell (2nd round)
  • Ben Shelton vs. Mariano Navone (2nd round)
  • Nuno Borges vs. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (2nd round)
  • Sonay Kartal vs. Elina Svitolina (2nd round)
  • Emma Raducanu vs. Marta Kostyuk (2nd round)
  • Alycia Parks vs. Daria Kasatkina (2nd round)
  • Peyton Stearns vs. Amanda Anisimova (2nd round)
  • Sebastian Korda vs. Federico Cina (2nd round)

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

Read, Watch, Listen

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For real-time match commentary and conversation, follow Court Theory on Bluesky.