Good morning, Court Theorists! ☕️🍓
Today’s tennis mood: Shaking my head at the ATP (again), but also ready for some key Wimbledon matches today.
Let’s tennis!
-Allen
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🎾 On tap: It’s on to the third round for singles today, with several top seeds in action and some big questions looming. Is Aryna Sabalenka ready for a Jelena Ostapenko-sized headache? How will American qualifier Michael Zheng handle the moment of playing on Centre Court against Felix Auger-Aliassime? Will Coco Gauff feel emboldened by narrowly escaping her previous match? On top of several compelling matches, doubles continues, and mixed doubles kicks off. More on all of that below.
🎾 ICYMI:
Grigor Dimitrov had an emotional win over Jakub Mensik.
Elena Rybakina ripped through Caty McNally.
Alex Eala handled business against Maya Joint.
Iga Swiatek was bothered not one bit by Karolina Pliskova.
Matteo Berrettini stunned on Centre Court against Arthur Fils.
🎾 Wimbledon side show: Doubles is in jeopardy if the ATP has anything to say about it. Over the last couple of days, an ATP proposal has been revealed that the organization wants to eliminate scores of doubles players by severely reducing the size of the draws — and their prize money — at all levels of ATP tournaments starting in 2028.
The numbers: The proposal would reduce draws to eight teams at 250- and 500-level tournaments. Masters 1000 tournaments would be capped at 16 teams. In addition, the share of prize money would be cut in half from 20 percent to 10. Those funds would be redistributed to early rounds of singles draws.
Players respond: The players, as you can imagine, aren’t too pleased about decisions being made about their futures without their input. They’ve put their heads together and launched a campaign.
One solution: The ATP (and other governing bodies) could make other choices, not least of which is marketing our sport as a whole instead of just a few top stars. It’s lazy, and it does a disservice to a lot of great players with amazing stories that fans would be attracted to if they just knew them better — and that includes doubles.
And another thing: Good luck to all the 1000-level tournament owners who have to find two weeks of matches to put on (and grounds passes to sell) with the doubles field cut in half.
🎾 One to watch: Hubert Hurkacz vs. Tommy Paul (3rd round - Wimbledon): Watch this one to see how two old friends handle going head-to-head. These two came on tour at the same time, have known each other for years and years, and put on a battle each time they face off.
The record: Tommy Paul leads the head-to-head record over Hubert Hurkacz 3-1. However, they have never played on grass.
On the line: Hurkacz is making a serious comeback after injury sidelined him for most of last year, and things are finally clicking. He wants to keep that rolling. This time last year, Tommy Paul was top 10 in the world. Now he’s 25. This match represents a chance for the fourth round and a very reasonable shot at the quarterfinals.
🎾 🏆 🎤 YOUR CALL
(Yesterday’s poll results: 78% of you called for Matteo Berrettini to defeat Arthur Fils. Berrettini won 6-4, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.)
And that’s game.
