Good morning, Court Theorists! ☕️☀️
Today’s tennis mood: Hoping for more serving and less hurling.
Let’s tennis!
-Allen
🎾 Week Two: We’re into the second week of the Madrid Open, and, with all of the on- and off-court activity, it feels like we’ve already lived an entire tournament already. If you went off and enjoyed your weekend away from screens, here are some things you should know from yesterday…
In a brilliant high-level battle, Elena Rybakina squeaked out a win over Qinwen Zheng 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
In a case of New Country, New Me, Anastasia Potapova (as a lucky loser) took down Jelena Ostapenko 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 with some gutsy tennis.
And in a contest of 19-year-olds, Rafael Jodar and Joao Fonseca did not disappoint, with the Spaniard taking it 7-6, 4-6, 6-1.
Thanks to some kind of virus making the rounds, Coco Gauff survived on-court vomiting and Sorana Cirstea to make it into the fourth round. (No, it’s not the rumored shrimp tacos taking players down…unless they somehow keep eating them over the several days that players have gotten sick.)
We’ve got some truly fascinating matches lined up today (more on that below), including Venus Williams and Katie Boulter back in action in women’s doubles.
🎾 The rollout: For some time, rumors have spilled out into the tennis sphere that Taylor Fritz and longtime girlfriend Morgan Riddle were no longer an item. Earlier this month, Riddle cheekily deflected on Instagram while Fritz remained quiet and out of the public eye with an injury. But, on Saturday, Riddle rolled out the break-up in a fashion you might expect from an influencer. People published the exclusive. She had a Swift-esque Instagram carousel (see below) ready to go. For his part, Fritz is also handling things as you might expect: privately.
🎾 One to watch: Francisco Cerundolo vs. Luciano Darderi (3rd round - ATP 1000 - Madrid): Watch this one to see two strong clay-courters with a history of great battles go head-to-head on the dirt. Expect gutsy tennis from these two with tons of weighty shots. The outcome could come down to fitness. (Shame on tournament organizers for sticking this match on an outside court that is otherwise reserved for doubles today.)
The record: Francisco Cerundolo leads the head-to-head record over Luciano Darderi 3-2. All of their meetings have been on clay. Three have gone three sets, and two of those were decided by a tiebreak.
On the line: With that head-to-head record and Cerundolo just two spots above Darderi in the rankings, this match is about pride for both players. Meanwhile, Cerundolo has semifinalist points to defend from last year’s Madrid Open, while Darderi has already exceeded his 2025 points total here.
And that’s game.
