👋 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: Curious plus excitement.
Let’s tennis!
Four Points
🎾 Day two: Today is Monday, but it’s the second day of the ATP Tour Finals in Turin. We’ve got two singles matches and two doubles matches on tap.
Turin - ATP Tour Finals (Hard)
Lorenzo Musetti vs. Taylor Fritz (Round Robin)
Jannik Sinner vs. Felix Auger-Aliassime (Round Robin)
Arevalo-Gonzalez/Pavic vs. Salisbury/Skupski (Round Robin)
Heliovaara/Patten vs. Harrison/King (Round Robin)
Learn how to watch today’s action over at Tennis Watchers.
🎾 A messy start: Because the singles field wasn’t finalized until after the Athens final on Saturday, only six players were at the tournament photo shoot. Those optics were bad enough, but the late final field has also thrown off the tournament. With staggered starts the first couple of days, the true standings of each group won’t be known until the end of day two. In the grand scheme of things, it won’t matter. But some players will be forced to play back-to-back days. That could have a more disastrous impact on certain players more than others.
🎾 One theory confirmed: On Saturday, as the Djokovic-Musetti final in Athens ended, I asked if they were having a laugh at the net because Djokovic told Musetti he was pulling out of the ATP Tour Finals. Turns out, the answer was yes. Speaking to reporters in Turin ahead of the tournament, Musetti was asked, “Your thoughts on getting in? Also, do you think Novak should have made a decision a lot earlier than he did about electing to play or not to play? What was your immediate reaction when you found out?”
What he said: “Well, I think Novak, he was completely in the rules of the ATP, of the tournament itself. Of course, I think the strange situation was that he was playing literally the week before the Masters. That could be a little bit strange for a player who is already qualified. But that's the only thing. Of course, when he told me at the net after the match that he was not coming, honestly we had a laugh about it. I was curious all week. I was curious if he was coming or not. Of course, I was trying to focus on myself. I think I made a good work at that, even if I didn't win the final.”
🎾 That surprise: On Friday, I teased something new was coming to Court Theory today. And it is! Once the podcast gods play nice, The Call with Court Theory & Friends — a new podcast by yours truly and my friends in tennis media — will be out in the world later today. If you’re reading this, you’ll get an email as soon as it’s available on all the major podcast platforms.
And, that’s game.
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We all deserve this kind of hype when we show up to work.
