👋 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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Let’s tennis!

Four Points

🎾 Shelton’s time: Ben Shelton catapulted himself into the final by defeating second-seeded Taylor Fritz in straightforward fashion on Wednesday night, 6-4, 6-3. In most respects, Shelton played a perfect match, keeping Fritz from hitting many winners or grinding him into unforced errors — the top American’s bread and butter.

  • What he said: “I think for me it was about keeping him moving, keeping him off balance,” Shelton said of his approach to playing Fritz. “Mixing up the way that I play, but playing within my limits, and being really solid. My execution was really, really good tonight.”
  • An honest assessment: “The Masters were the one level of tournaments that I’ve been struggling with, and my next step is being able to excel in these tournaments,” Shelton said after the match. “So, taking that first step and getting my first deep run under my belt is exciting.”
  • Next: Shelton faces Karen Khachanov in the final tonight.

🎾 Mboko continues: Victoria Mboko, the 18-year-old Canadian, held off a match point and an injured wrist to claim her spot in the final of Montreal. Her nearly three-hour, 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 win over Elena Rybakina was every bit the thriller the scoreline suggests.

  • What she said: “I had everyone supporting me and pushing me through,” Mboko said during her on-court interview. “Without you guys, I don’t think I would’ve been able to pull this through.”
  • Next: Mboko faces Naomi Osaka in the final on Thursday evening.
  • Noteworthy: Mboko suffered an injury in the match against Rybakina as she took a tumble mid-point. During a medical timeout, she had her wrist taped and played the rest of the match with it. How much that will be a factor in the final remains to be seen.

🎾 Cincy kicks off: The Cincinnati Open main draw matches kick off Thursday. It’s a little bit of a shame that fans will be forced to choose between some truly outstanding prime-time matches in the Midwest and the finals in Montreal and Toronto, which are also all but guaranteed to cannibalize each other. Yes, tournaments overlap all the time. But not two 1000-level events. It’s truly baffling that multiple people agreed to this scheduling catastrophe.

🎾 New appointment: WTA Ventures has brought on Jessica Chanderli as the new senior vice president for media rights. Chanderli will lead the WTA’s media rights strategy for broadcast, digital platforms, and other media partners. She was previously head of media rights for the French Tennis Federation, where she led the global media rights for Roland-Garros.

  • Why it matters: This is a new role within the WTA structure, which signals an important step forward in the organization’s seriousness about distributing women’s tennis around the world in ways that make it easier for fans to enjoy.
  • Yes, but: This is also about getting better deals for women’s tennis, which is just as important.
  • Wishlist: If we here at Court Theory HQ could make a request, it would be this: How about relaxing the policies about who can share what content? We’re not trying to run some kind of bootleg livestreaming service, but it would be nice if publishers and creators could share and remix highlights without getting banned on social media.