👋 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: The seed count keeps dropping, rough schedule for Arthur Rinderknech, ESPN didn’t get the memo, Hailey Baptiste takes on Victoria Mboko, plus more in today’s tennis news.

Let’s tennis!

Three Points

🎾 Seed count: Another eight seeds — six women and two men — lost on Wednesday. That means 31 seeds have fallen thus far, and we still have another day of second-round matches today.

  • Women’s upsets: Kamilla Rakhimova def. Jasmine Paolini 4-6, 6-4, 6-4; Diane Parry def. Diana Shnaider 6-4, 6-1; Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova def. Ashlyn Krueger 7-6, 6-4; Dalma Galfi def. Beatriz Haddad Maia 7-6, 6-1; Laura Siegemund def. Leylah Fernandez 6-2, 6-3; Cristina Bucsa def. Donna Vekic 6-1, 6-3;
  • Men’s upset: Cameron Norrie def. Frances Tiafoe 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-5; Mattia Bellucci def. Jiri Lehecka 7-6, 6-1, 7-5

🎾 Rough schedule: For all the shouts of unfairness when Taylor Fritz had to return to play one set against Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard on Tuesday, Arthur Rinderknech would like a word. His match was also suspended that night, but he had to come back and play three grueling sets to take down Alexander Zverev on Tuesday. And while Fritz got his match done in time before curfew on Wednesday, Rinderknech ran out of daylight, pushing him to a fourth straight day when play resumes on Thursday. If he wins, that will push him to five straight days on Friday. Makes you wonder if he regrets entering doubles.

🎾 One observation: After the general success of TNT Sports at Roland-Garros, which did an excellent job of keeping viewers interested and watching, it seemed like ESPN would have to up its game for fear of comparison. It appears that memo didn’t reach execs in Bristol, CT. The broadcast seems virtually unchanged and as flat as ever. Fuller write up coming soon on courttheory.com.

And, that’s game.

Watch This!

🔥 Hailey Baptiste vs. Victoria Mboko (2nd round - Wimbledon): Sometimes this daily pick is about a gut feeling. And this is one of those occasions.

Mboko is one of the most exciting new players on the tour, whose current ranking would have gotten her straight into the main draw (but at cutoff she was just below) and entered as a luck loser. Baptiste is rapidly rising this year after some changes to her team (including the addition of longtime friend Franklin Tiafoe), entering the top 50 when the new rankings come out.

These two will hit the cover off the ball, but watch for Baptiste’s variety with her slice backhand and net play. Who wins? Today, it kind of doesn’t matter.

  • The record: This will be the first time Hailey Baptiste and Victoria Mboko face off.
  • On the line: There are no points to defend for either player. This match is about pride, stacking points, and a shot at making the third round of a major.

On The Radar

More tennis matches we’re monitoring today:

Wimbledon - WTA (Grass)

  • Iga Swiatek vs. Caty McNally (2nd round)
  • Maria Sakkari vs. Elena Rybakina (2nd round)
  • Barbora Krejcikova vs. Caroline Dolehide (2nd round)

Wimbledon - ATP (Grass)

  • Dan Evans vs. Novak Djokovic (2nd round)
  • Jack Draper vs. Marin Cilic (2nd round)
  • Ben Shelton vs. Rinky Hijikata (2nd round)
  • Grigor Dimitrov vs. Corentin Moutet (2nd round)
  • Marcos Giron vs. Jakub Mensik (2nd round)
  • Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Jan-Lennard Struff (2nd round - TBF)
  • Marton Fucsovics vs. Gael Monfils (2nd round)
  • Brandon Nakashima vs. Reilly Opelka (2nd round)

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

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