👋 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 rating: Intrigued with a serious eyebrow raised.
Let’s tennis!
Two Points
🎾 Sinner out at Davis Cup: In its title defense, the Italian team will be without its top player in the Davis Cup Finals. The team announced on Monday that Jannik Sinner would be skipping the event to rest and prepare for the 2026 season. The decision puts to rest the hope of many fans in Italy and Spain — indeed, the world — for a Sinner-Alcaraz battle with country pride on the line.
- What they said: “The Davis Cup is and will always remain his home, and I am certain that Jannik will return to be part of the squad soon,” team captain Filippo Volandri said in a statement.
- Still impressive: Italy remains in excellent hands with this squad: Lorenzo Musetti, Flavio Cobolli, and Matteo Berrettini in singles. The top Italian team of Andrea Vavassori and Simone Bolelli will play in doubles.
- Yes, but: Italian fans ain’t happy about it.
🎾 Ben’s Back: Ben Shelton is back in action in Basel on Tuesday after struggling to return from an injury that took him out of the U.S. Open. He tested the waters earlier this month in Shanghai, but lost his first match to David Goffin in straight sets and then pulled out of the doubles. No doubt he will want to give the remainder of the season a solid go, given his opportunity to qualify for the year-end ATP Tour Finals in Turin. Currently, he sits in the sixth slot. But with thousands of points still on the line, it’s no guarantee.
- Next: Shelton, seeded second in Basel, faces Kamil Majchrzak on Tuesday.
And, that’s game.
On The Radar
Matches we’re monitoring today:
Tokyo - WTA 500 (Hard)
- McCartney Kessler vs. Linda Noskova (2nd round)
- Victoria Mboko vs. Eva Lys (2nd round)
- Diana Shnaider vs. Anna Kalinskaya (2nd round)
- Maya Joint vs. Karolina Muchova (2nd round)
Guangzhou - WTA 250 (Hard)
- Camila Osorio vs. Ann Li (2nd round)
- Lulu Sun vs. Yafan Wang (2nd round)
- Xiyu Wang vs. Elisabetta Cocciaretto (2nd round)
- Shuai Zhang vs. Veronika Erjavec (2nd round)
Basel - ATP 500 (Hard)
- David Goffin vs. Marin Cilic (1st round)
- Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard vs. Joao Fonseca (1st round)
- Kamil Majchrzak vs. Ben Shelton (1st round)
- Miomir Kecmanovic vs. Stan Wawrinka (1st round)
- Raphael Collignon vs. Valentin Royer (1st round)
- Marcos Giron vs. Denis Shapovalov (1st round)
Vienna - ATP 500 (Hard)
- Camilo Ugo Carabelli vs. Filip Misolic (1st round)
- Cameron Norrie vs. Andrey Rublev (1st round)
- Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Lorenzo Musetti (1st round)
- Jacob Fearnley vs. Alexander Zverev (1st round)
- Francisco Cerundolo vs. Alex Michelsen (1st round)
📺 Learn how to watch today’s action over at Tennis Watchers.
Read, Watch, Listen
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- Victoria Mboko won the battle of the Canadians over Bianca Andreescu. Then they teamed up for doubles and won their first-round match.
- Marta Kostyuk has some thoughts about the strategies she has to take against Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka, given their testosterone levels. 😳
- Mimi Xu, the Welsh teen who made a big splash during the grass court season this year, passed her driving test — even if it stressed her out more than playing pro tennis.
- Jannik Sinner says he will find a way to convince Darren Cahill to stay on his team in 2026.
- AI hasn’t taken all the line judge jobs...yet.
- On Served, Andy Roddick gets into all the things wrong with the tour that have led us to this injurious moment.
- John Beddington, a key player in Canadian tennis and a former tournament director of the forerunner of the ATP Tour Finals, has died.
- The racket Carlos Alcaraz used at Wimbledon in 2023 just fetched a record amount of cash.
