Good morning, Court Theorists! ☕️☀️🍁
Today’s tennis mood: High curiosity for the (Thursday) finals and high empathy for Jack Draper.
Let’s tennis!
-Allen
🎾 On tap: It’s Thursday, which just screams “Finals Day!” right? But here we are. Iga Swiatek vs. Elena Rybakina and Ben Shelton vs. Brandon Nakashima. They’re both evening matches scheduled two hours apart. Now we have to hope the weather cooperates. But that’s not all! Cincinnati main draw kicks off today (with some qualifying matches on the docket after rain suspended play yesterday). And, they’re still putting on prime-time matches during the Canadian finals. So much for coordination.
🎾 ICYMI: Yesterday in Toronto and Montreal, it was semifinals day. Here’s how that action shook out…
Elena Rybakina defeated Coco Gauff 5-7, 6-2, 6-2
Iga Swiatek defeated Elina Svitolina 6-3, 1-6, 6-3
Ben Shelton defeated Learner Tien 6-2, 6-3
Brandon Nakashima defeated Rafael Jodar 7-6, 6-4
🎾 One to watch: Ben Shelton vs. Brandon Nakashima (Final - ATP 1000 - Hard): Watch this one for two Americans facing off in the final with a significant milestone at stake for each one. Shelton is coming into the match with high confidence, not having dropped a set all tournament long. Nakashima is playing with similar confidence levels, taking out multiple seeds ahead of him, including the red-hot Rafa Jodar. This match will likely come down to how well Shelton serves and how well Nakashima holds his nerve.
The record: Ben Shelton leads the head-to-head record against Brandon Nakashima 5-0. However, that tally is extremely misleading with scorelines like this.
On the line: Personal achievements are what’s at stake today. Either Ben Shelton gets the extremely rare title defense, or Brandon Nakashima lands his first Masters 1000 title.
🎾 🏆 🎤 YOUR CALL
(Yesterday’s poll results: 75% of you called for Coco Gauff to defeat Elena Rybakina. Rybakina won 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.)
And that’s game.
