👋 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!

Three Points

🎾 Kicking off with an upset: Felix Auger-Aliassime took four hours and four sets to defeat the eighth seed, Alex de Minaur, 4-6, 7-6, 7-5, 7-6. It was a highly entertaining match, even though it was filled with uncharacteristic mistakes from both players and a shockingly low first serve percentage from de Minaur.

  • What he said: “Just a lot of nerves today, during the whole match. It wasn't pretty at all times,” Auger-Aliassime said during his on-court interview. “I was willing to dig really deep and do everything I can to stand here, right now.”
  • And what he said: “I feel like this one was on my racket, and it is a shame,” de Minaur said. “I don’t know how I'll handle it. I’m definitely, as of right now, seeing red, but yeah, I’ll get over it. It’s just tennis, right?”
  • The numbers: Both players had 11 double faults, but that comes with the territory for FAA, who had 22 aces. Meanwhile, de Minaur carried a first serve percentage in the 30s for much of the match and ended with 42 percent. And in the unforced error column, Auger-Aliassime had 50, but he tallied 51 winners to balance that out.
  • Next: Felix Auger-Aliassime faces Jannik Sinner in the men’s semifinals on Friday.

🎾 The revenge match: Despite everyone’s attempt to remind Amanda Anisimova of her double bagel loss to Iga Swiatek at Wimbledon, she proved that moment was firmly in the rearview mirror with a 6-4, 6-3 win in their quarterfinal rematch on Wednesday. She played exactly the type of tennis Swiatek struggles with the most: first-strike tennis with aggressive court positioning to take Swiatek’s time away. That led to nearly double the amount of winners as unforced errors for Anisimova: 23 to 12.

  • What she said: “I think when I started the tournament, I was kind of going into the matches with a little bit of fear and maybe holding back a bit,” Anisimova said. “As I’ve been progressing and playing more and more, I told myself, ‘you can’t go into the match with any fear,’ especially if I’m playing against top players.” She added: “It’s just not a negotiable for me, because if I want to win the match, I’m going to have to play really brave and strong tennis.”
  • Next: Amanda Anisimova faces Naomi Osaka in the second semifinal match on Thursday night.

🎾 Winding down: With four days left to go until the U.S. Open concludes, it’s already starting to feel like it’s over. Today, we have the two women’s matches on in prime time, which leaves Arthur Ashe Stadium empty during the day. On Armstrong, a pair of juniors matches. That’s followed by the two men’s semifinals starting around 4:00, which means the continuation of the Cinderella story of Robert Cash and JJ Tracy will likely play out while fellow American Jessica Pegula takes on Aryna Sabalenka. In other words, if matches are sparse, perhaps schedulers could avoid having them compete.