👋 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: Power’s out in Madrid, Andrey Rublev is a cautionary tale in a new era, Lorenzo Musetti is in a rematch against Stefanos Tsitsipas, plus more in tennis news today.

Let’s tennis!

Three Points

🎾 No power: If you turned on your favorite match from Madrid this morning only to realize it was nowhere to be found, that’s because there is a massive power outage affecting Spain and Portugal, affecting many parts of life in those countries, including transportation, emergency services, and payment processing. As for the tennis in Madrid, the ATP said the loss of power “is preventing the use of electronic line calling systems and also left a spider cam dangling over the court inside Manolo Santana Stadium.”

  • What she said: Coco Gauff was one of the few players to complete their match before the outage occurred. “No power where the showers are. So I’m about to take a shower and I’ll let you all know how it goes,” she posted on Instagram.

🎾 Rublow out: When the next rankings come out, Andrey Rublev will drop out of the top 10 and plummet nearly out of the top 20 after not only failing to defend his title in Madrid but also logging a 2-6 record in his last six events. It’s been a rough stretch for a number of top 10 mainstays who had one or two good tournaments last year. The consistency of other players in the top 20 means first-match exits (Rublev has had six so far this year) will cost you.

  • Next: Rublev only has 150 points to defend between Rome and Roland-Garros, and he has no points to defend in the grass season after not winning a match on that surface last year. So, there are opportunities to make up lost ground. But is his mind right to pull it off? Can Marat Safin get his mind right to gain that ground?

🎾 Check the mark: Alexander Zverev received a code violation on Sunday for grabbing his phone and taking a picture of a ball mark that was well wide of the line, but was called good by the electronic line-calling system. This is hardly the first case of a player disagreeing with an ELS call. And, to be clear, it’s not as if players always agree with humans, either. However, the Zverev case might be the most egregious discrepancy between the call and the mark left on the clay. This recent spate of problematic calls is raising serious questions about the readiness of the system on clay. No doubt Roland-Garros organizers are sitting smugly at their insistence that they will stick with human line judges.

And, that’s game.

What They Said

I mean, I cannot outplay Andrey, we all know that. He’s an incredible athlete, he’s better than me in all the aspects if we talk about work. But I’m the creator, I’m the artist of certain things and for me it was important to keep him away from his work ethic and bring him into my field, which worked perfectly this time.

-Alexander Bublik after defeating Andrey Rublev at the Madrid Open on Sunday.

Watch This!

🔥 Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Lorenzo Musetti (3rd round ATP 1000 - Madrid): Watch this one for a potential revenge match. Earlier this month, Musetti stopped Tsitsipas in his tracks in the quarterfinals at his favorite tournament as the defending champion of Monte Carlo. More than that, this is an enjoyable classic clay court battle between two guys who know how to play on the dirt and wield one-handed backhands. Like last time, look for Tsitsipas to bully Musetti off the court, while Musetti attempts to put Tsitsipas in uncomfortable positions until he can strike a winner of his own.

  • The record: Stefanos Tsitsipas leads the head-to-head record over Lorenzo Musetti 5-1. But! That single Musetti win came on the clay just a few weeks ago at Monte Carlo. Before that, they hadn’t faced each other in two years.
  • On the line: Stefanos Tsitsipas considers clay season to be his season. Thus far, it’s anything but. An early round exit in Madrid won’t help those matters as we inch that much closer toward Roland-Garros. Lorenzo Musetti wants to prove his win over Tsitsipas — and subsequent run to the finals — in Monte Carlo wasn’t a fluke. A repeat performance in Madrid would help with that.
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For real-time match commentary and conversation, follow Court Theory on Bluesky.

On The Radar

More tennis matches we’re monitoring today:

Madrid - WTA 1000 (Clay)

  • Grigor Dimitrov vs. Jacob Fearnely (3rd round)
  • Diana Shnaider vs. Iga Swiatek (4th round)
  • Aryna Sabalenka vs. Peyton Stearns (4th round)
  • Elina Svitolina vs. Maria Sakkari (4th round)
  • Belinda Bencic vs. Coco Gauff (4th round)
  • Frances Tiafoe vs. Alexandre Muller (3rd round)
  • Alex de Minaur vs. Denis Shapovalov (3rd round)
  • Madison Keys vs. Donna Vekic (4th round)
  • Karen Khachanov vs. Tommy Paul (3rd round)
  • Jack Draper vs. Matteo Berrettini (3rd round)

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

Read, Watch, Listen

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For real-time match commentary and conversation, follow Court Theory on Bluesky.