👋 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: The ATP gets its nose slapped, Paula Badosa pulls out same day again, Jessica Pegula takes on Ashlyn Krueger, plus more in today’s tennis news.
Let’s tennis!
Four Points
🎾 A win for the PTPA: A federal judge in New York has sided with players in the Professional Tennis Players Association antitrust lawsuit against the ATP, saying the ATP cannot retaliate against or threaten players who join the lawsuit against it, The Athletic reports.
Per The Athletic: “After the filing of that lawsuit, the ATP Tour circulated a letter to be signed by its players. The letter said that any players that signed it did not support the lawsuit, nor the PTPA. [Judge] Garnett ruled that the circulation of that letter, and a specific instance in which an ATP board member pressured two players to sign it, amounted to ‘coercive, deceptive, or potentially abusive’ behavior. Those players were world No. 2 Alexander Zverev, of Germany, and Ben Shelton, the American world No. 13.”
Recently: American Reilly Opelka testified that the ATP threatened him and his pension for joining the PTPA lawsuit.
🎾 Returning to action: Although we’re deep into the clay season, today marks a return to action for some of the sport’s favorite women’s players coming off injuries as they try to get one event under their belt before Roland-Garros. We here at Court Theory HQ will observe their form today.
Naming names: Danielle Collins, Karolina Muchova, and
Paula Badosa.
🎾 Badosa pulls out...again: Paula Badosa’s ongoing back injury forced her to withdraw from her first match at the Italian Open against Naomi Osaka on Thursday, making Rome the newest in a string of withdrawals and retirements on the Spaniard’s timeline.
Recently: “I have no choice, I’m very stubborn,” she told Eurosport earlier this month. “For me to stop, the doctors would have to tell me so... and I’m in daily contact with them.” She added: “I know I’m going to retire young and the next day I’ll be straight into surgery.”
🎾 Hopped off: The Hopman Cup teams and players have been announced for this year’s event. If you’re surprised it’s happening again this year, that makes two of us. The once prestigious pre-Australian Open warm-up event named after the famous Australian coach is now being shuffled around Europe in the middle of the summer after United Cup bumped it out of the way. However, last year’s edition was canceled because of the Olympics. We here at Court Theory HQ thought that would be the end of the Hopman Cup. Alas, it limps on.
Entered countries: Canada, Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, and Spain. Yes, you’re reading that correctly: Australia, the founders of Hopman Cup, aren’t sending a team.
Top-ranked players: Jasmine Paolini, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Arthur Fils, and Donna Vekic.
And, that’s game.
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Watch This!
🔥 Ashlyn Krueger vs. Jessica Pegula (2nd round WTA 1000 - Rome): This is a match between two Americans who are great ball strikers but who are also streaky on the clay.
The record: Jessica Pegula leads the head-to-head record over Ashlyn Krueger 3-0. This will be their first meeting on clay.
On the line: Pegula may have won the Har-Tru event in Charleston, but her performance on the red clay of Europe has been less than spectacular thus far. As a top five player, there are some serious expectations on her for Roland-Garros. An early exit in Rome won’t help her meet them. For Krueger, at 37 in the world, her ranking is just low enough to face tough early matches at the big tournaments. The pressure is on her opponent today, but she needs matches going into Roland-Garros. Pulling off a surprise win would keep her going for at least one more round.
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For real-time match commentary and conversation,
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On The Radar
More tennis matches we’re monitoring today:
Rome - WTA 1000 (Clay)
Lucia Bronzetti vs. Karolina Muchova (2nd round)
Peyton Stearns vs. Anna Kalinskaya (2nd round)
Danielle Collins vs. Elena Ruse (2nd round)
Madison Keys vs. Varvara Gracheva (2nd round)
Hailey Baptiste vs. Liudmila Samsonova (2nd round)
Rome - ATP 1000 (Clay)
Matteo Arnaldi vs. Roberto Bautista Agut (1st round)
Jacob Fearnley vs. Fabio Fognini (1st round)
Luca Nardi vs. Flavio Cobolli (1st round)
Fabian Marozsan vs. Joao Fonseca (1st round)
Arthur Rinderknech vs. Matteo Gigante (1st round)
Learner Tien vs. Reilly Opelka (1st round)
Gabriel Diallo vs. Marcos Giron (1st round)
📺 Learn how to watch today’s action over at Tennis Watchers.
Read, Watch, Listen
The ATP and WTA sign a sponsorship deal with Verizon — and it was brokered by Tennis Channel.
Lacoste drapes Novak Djokovic in a golden net cape.
Ons Jabeur goes deep on a deep topic.
At The Athletic, Matt Futterman observes Naomi Osaka fresh off a WTA 125 title.
And she reflects on the person she was in her Netflix documentary.
Fabio Fognini says this is his last tournament in Rome.
Vika Azarenka has thoughts on the state of tennis and its rules.
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