👋 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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Today’s tennis mood: Heartbreak plus validation.

Let’s tennis!

Three Points

🎾 Staying on track: The WTA and ATP tours are staying (relatively) put this week, with the women continuing the Asian swing and the men in European indoor tournaments. The WTA Tour is camped in Tokyo for a 500-level event and Guangzhou for a 250 tournament, while the ATP Tour is in Basel and Vienna for a pair of 500-level tournaments.

  • Top 10 players in action this week: Elena Rybakina, Ekaterina Alexandrova, Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev, Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton, Alex de Minaur, Lorenzo Musetti, and Karen Khachanov.

🎾 A heartbreaking update: Holger Rune said on Sunday that he faces being out of action for a significant amount of time after sustaining an Achilles injury during his semifinal match in Stockholm against Ugo Humbert on Saturday. The injury will require surgery this week.

  • What he said: “It’s gonna be a while before I can step on court again. It’s tough. I had so much joy on court in Stockholm and it’s unbearable to think that I will not feel this energy for some time now,” Rune posted on Instagram.
  • The big picture: Other players weighed in on social media, noting that the demands of the tour schedule are leading to injuries like Rune’s. “Injuries are going to happen… we are pushing our bodies to do things they aren’t supposed to in elite sport. We have so many incredible younger guys on the tour right now and I’m proud to be apart of that, however, the tour and the calendar have to adapt if any of us are gonna achieve some sort of longevity,” Jack Draper wrote on X.
  • One more: Taylor Fritz replied to Draper’s post: “Facts, also seeing more injuries and burnout now than ever before because balls, courts, conditions have slowed down a lot making the weekly grind even more physically demanding and tough on the body.”

🎾 Backing it up: In August, when I mentioned that something had clicked with Felix Auger-Aliassime when he reached the quarterfinals of Cincinnati, some of you were thoroughly skeptical. You wanted more proof than one good run. He backed it up with a semifinal run at the U.S. Open, taking out two top 10 players before losing to Jannik Sinner in four sets. Then he reached the quarterfinals of the Masters 1000 event in Shanghai. Yesterday, he won Brussels by taking out a very in-form Jiri Lehecka in three tough sets.

  • The thing: It’s not just that Felix is playing better tennis, although he is. Back in August, what I noticed was a lightness about him. The easy smiles were back. So was his confidence.
  • Full circle: This strong end-of-the-year performance mirrors the start to his year, in which he won a pair of 250s and got to the semifinals and final in a pair of 500s.
  • By the numbers: All of that adds up to a current ranking of 12 in the world, with an ATP race ranking of no. 9. That means he’s right there to join the best players of the year in Turin.
  • Next: Felix Auger-Aliassime is in Basel this week as the fifth seed. He faces fellow Canadian Gabriel Diallo in the first round.

And, that’s game.

On The Radar

Matches we’re monitoring today:

Tokyo - WTA 500 (Hard)

  • Moyuka Uchijima vs. Sofia Kenin (1st round)
  • Leylah Fernandez vs. Maria Sakkari (1st round)
  • Victoria Mboko vs. Bianca Andreescu (1st round)
  • Wakana Sonobe vs. Nikola Bartunkova (1st round)
  • Diana Shnaider vs. Dayana Yastremska (1st round)

Guangzhou - WTA 250 (Hard)

  • Camila Osorio vs. Lucia Bronzetti (1st round)
  • Ajla Tomljanovic vs. Alycia Parks (1st round)
  • Shuai Zhang vs. Anastasia Zakharova (1st round)
  • Jessica Maneiro vs. Lulu Sun (1st round)

Basel - ATP 500 (Hard)

  • Jenson Brooksby vs. Alexandre Muller (1st round)
  • Lorenzo Sonego vs. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (1st round)
  • Jakub Mensik vs. Henry Bernet (1st round)

Vienna - ATP 500 (Hard)

  • Luciano Darderi vs. Brandon Nakashima (1st round)
  • Alejandro Tabilo vs. Alexander Bublik (1st round)
  • Karen Khachanov vs. Tallon Griekspoor (1st round)
  • Aleksandar Kovacevic vs. Matteo Arnaldi (1st round)

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

Read, Watch, Listen

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