👋 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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On tap today: Tommy Paul and Frances Tiafoe end their Roland-Garros runs, Lorenzo Musetti sure is lucky, Lois Boisson is about to make Court Philippe-Chatrier very loud, Coco Gauff takes on Madison Keys, plus more in today’s tennis news.

Let’s tennis!

Three Points

🎾 Rough day for American men: Almost as quickly as the hype ignited over having two American men in the quarterfinals of Roland-Garros after years and years of disappointing results on the red clay of Paris, the excitement came to a screeching halt. Frances Tiafoe, who had not dropped a set coming into his quarterfinal match against Lorenzo Musetti, got off to a rocky start before losing in four sets (more on that below). And Tommy Paul won just a single game in his first two sets against Carlos Alcaraz before putting up a fight in the third set (but still losing it 6-4).

  • What Tiafoe said: “Now, to be able to make quarterfinal slams, gonna probably change the way I approach it next year, this season in general. And obviously, I’ll be coming here ready to play, for sure, next year. So, I’m really happy about that,” Tiafoe said after the match. “I still haven't scratched the surface generally. I’ve had some good runs and that’s cool, but I really feel like I can really be at the end of these type tournaments. I haven't done it yet, and that’s what’s going to keep me going and keep me excited to do more.”
  • What Paul said: “I’ve felt better, you know?” said Paul, who was managing leg and abdominal muscle issues throughout Roland-Garros. “Obviously, I went into the match like, ‘I want to win the match.’ But pretty early on in the match, it was pretty obvious that I wasn’t moving amazing.”

🎾 Kicked off: For a moment during his match on Tuesday against Frances Tiafoe, it seemed that Lorenzo Musetti wouldn’t be permitted to continue. In a moment of frustration, Musetti kicked a ball that then struck a line judge. By a strict reading of the rules, he should have been defaulted. By the norms of the tour, it was a judgment call by the chair umpire, who allowed Musetti to continue with a simple warning — a judgment call that raised more than a few eyebrows, including Tiafoe’s.

  • What the rules say: “Players shall not violently, dangerously or with anger hit, kick or throw a tennis ball while on the grounds of the tournament site except in the reasonable pursuit of a point during a match (including warm-up),” according to the Grand Slam rulebook. “For purposes of this rule, abuse of balls is defined as intentionally or recklessly hitting a ball out of the enclosure of the court, hitting a ball dangerously or recklessly within the court or hitting a ball with disregard of the consequences.”
  • What he said: “Yeah, I mean, obviously he did that and nothing happened,” said Tiafoe. “I think that’s comical, but it is what it is. Nothing happened, so there’s nothing really to talk about. Obviously, it’s not consistent, so it is what it is.”
  • And what he said: “Yeah, honestly, it was really unlucky coincidence,” Musetti said during post-match press. “Yeah, I was a little bit, honestly, scared, because I really didn’t want to harm nobody, of course...It was right to have a warning, but I think the umpire saw that there was no intention about that.”
  • Official Court Theory take: This crap has got to stop.

🎾 Boisson’s house: After Lois Boisson, the 22-year-old French player ranked outside the top 300 in the world, took down Jessica Pegula in the fourth round on Monday, she told the crowd on Court Philippe-Chatrier, “Playing on this court with this atmosphere was amazing...I gave my all, and in the end I won, which is just incredible. I hope I’m going to win it all.” With little doubt, the fans on that very same court will do their part to see that she can win at least one more round. How can Mirra Andreeva possibly prepare for those conditions? She can’t. But the teen, who is still maturing before our very eyes, can’t afford to feed the crowd with outbursts. Let’s see how well she controls that aspect of her game.