👋 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: Jack Draper is somehow winning on all surfaces, the USTA loses a rising star to Italy, Coco Gauff takes on Iga Swiatek, plus more tennis news today.
Let’s tennis!
Three Points
🎾 Good dirt: Jack Draper is rapidly proving he is a player of all surfaces this week in Madrid. After a decisive 6-2, 6-2 win over Tommy Paul on Wednesday, the young Brit is the highest-ranked player in the quarterfinals. Yes, the conditions of higher altitude and semi-indoor courts favor his style of play, but so do the heaviness of his ball and his adept movement on the clay.
- What he said: “The more matches I play at this level will keep helping my confidence on this surface,” said Draper. “Obviously a win today, in that kind of way, against someone who is ranked 12 in the world is a big thing for me. I’m just happy with the way I’m approaching the matches and my training and everything, and yeah, I’m looking forward to keep on continuing, hopefully trying to get better and better on this surface and just in general.”
- Next: Draper faces Matteo Arnaldi of Italy in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
🎾 We lost one: Tyra Grant, the promising American teen making her way up the pro ranks, has decided to represent Italy, The Athletic reports. The 17-year-old is the daughter of an American father and an Italian mother and spent many of her years training at the Piatti Academy in Bordighera. However, since 2023, Grant has made the USTA National Campus in Orlando her home base. Grant has not yet offered a comment on the news.
- One question: Is Grant’s decision the first bit of fallout from the USTA’s shift in priorities away from player development?
- Next: Grant will play in Rome next week at the Italian Open, where she has received a wild card.
🎾 Yesterday’s match: As if tensions weren’t already high enough between Aryna Sabalenka and Marta Kostyuk before they even stepped on the court, things managed to get worse over the course of two-and-a-half hours of serious tug-o-war tennis that resulted in a 7-6, 7-6 win for Sabalenka. But things really came to a head when Sabalenka attempted to halt play due to rain at 5-4 in the second set tiebreak. Initially, the request was rebuffed. However, soon after the chair umpire paused play — and matters worsened when Sabalenka was given a first serve upon resuming play.
- What she said: “But wait, she stopped by herself — nobody stopped her. It was like two minutes when she served first time, and then she stopped. She could have served ten times, and she voluntarily stopped,” said Kostyuk.
- And then she said: “She is never winning a sportsman’s award, that’s for sure,” Kostyuk told her team.
And, that’s game.
What They Said
I doubt myself every day. Can I keep going? There’s no denying I think that in any professional sport, but especially in tennis, it’s so relentless. We’re playing, we’re competing, we’re away from our families, we’re just sacrificing our lives. I think if you do this sport properly as well and give it everything every day, you know, it’s tough.
-Jack Draper on the relentless nature of the ATP Tour.
Watch This!
🔥 Coco Gauff vs. Iga Swiatek (Semifinals WTA 1000 - Madrid): Watch this match for a battle between two great players who know each other’s games well. Both have been struggling as of late, but their matches over recent years have produced some of the greatest competitive drama you could wish for. Expect some nervy moments, but also incredible athleticism, scrappy saves, and gutsy shot-making.
- The record: Iga Swiatek leads the head-to-head record over Coco Gauff 11-3. But! Gauff has won their two most recent meetings in straight sets.
- On the line: Swiatek hasn’t won a tournament since last year’s Roland-Garros, and she’s running out of opportunities to get that winning feeling before her most important tournament of the year in Paris. Meanwhile, Gauff is building steam for the first time since the Australian Open, and doesn’t want to stop now.
On The Radar
More tennis matches we’re monitoring today:
Madrid - WTA 1000 (Clay)
- Capser Ruud vs. Daniil Medvedev (Quarterfinals)
- Lorenzo Musetti vs. Gabriel Diallo (Quarterfinals)
- Aryna Sabalenka vs. Elina Svitolina (Semifinals)
- Francisco Cerundolo vs. Jakub Mensik (Quarterfinals)
- Jack Draper vs. Matteo Arnaldi (Quarterfinals)
📺 Learn how to watch today’s action over at Tennis Watchers.
Read, Watch, Listen
- As we slide into Rome, our friends at Racquet magazine offer their digital cover story — a beautiful tribute to the city, the tournament, and its clay from the founder of Broken Rackets.
- The ITIA said it is receiving a flood of requests from players seeking basic information about the anti-doping program since the Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek cases.
- Ons Jabeur gets the head WTA supervisor good in the newest episode of What’s Goin’ Ons?!
- Canadian Gabriel Diallo is on the cusp of breaking into the top 50 as he plays his first Masters 1000 quarterfinal today in Madrid — and he is doing it as a lucky loser.
- Instead of playing the highest possible events his ranking would get him into, American Nishesh Basavareddy is learning the clay ropes on the Challenger Tour.
- And they say Paris is the city of romance.
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