👋 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.
Programming note: I’m still a touch under the weather (but on the mend!), so today’s edition is a bit abbreviated. Tomorrow should be back to normal. 🤞🏻
On tap today: Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray part ways, Arthur Fils takes on Alexander Zverev, plus more in today’s tennis news.
Let’s tennis!
One Big Story
🎾 The end of Djokovic-Murray: The experiment of Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray working together has ended after just four tournaments and six months. In that period, Djokovic had highs of reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open (before injury snatched his opportunity away) and the final of Miami. But there were many more lows that included four puzzling first-match losses.
- An assessment: There may be plenty of reasons why the partnership didn’t work. But here’s a serious one: it was clear from everything we saw, the dynamic between the two was simply strange. Neither one of them was their natural selves. Two of the chirpiest players on tour suddenly became silent. For Djokovic, that meant bottled-up energy that was never released when he needed an adversary to unleash upon.
- What they said: “Thank you, coach Andy, for all the hard work, fun and support over last six months on and off the court, really enjoyed deepening our friendship together,” Djokovic said in a statement. Murray added: “Thanks to Novak for the unbelievable opportunity to work together and thanks to his team for all their hard work over the past six months. I wish Novak all the best for the rest of the season.”
- Next: Djokovic heads to Geneva for a 250 event for the second year in a row. Will he go back to being coachless, as he was before Murray joined his team? We’ll have to see.
