Good morning, Court Theorists! ☕️😎
Today’s tennis mood: A bit puzzled but mostly excited.
Let’s tennis!
-Allen
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🎾 Day One, Take Two: Technically, yesterday was opening day at the Miami Open. But with just a handful of women’s main draw matches, it was less than a full-throated launch of the tournament. Today, however, is men’s and women’s first-round action, with lots of big names and fan favorites.
In action: Venus Williams, Grigor Dimitrov, Matteo Berrettini, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Taylor Townsend, and more. Check out the matches we’re monitoring below.
Missed opportunity: Today at the Miami Open is Brazilian Heritage Day, but there are <checks notes> no Brazilian players on the schedule. There’s one player in particular fans would want to celebrate the day watching. What’s his name again? It’s on the tip of my tongue.
🎾 See you next year? In her pre-tournament press obligations in Miami, Aryna Sabalenka said she may never compete at the Dubai Tennis Championships again after she and Iga Swiatek were criticized by the tournament director following their withdrawals from the event last month.
What she said: “It’s ridiculous,” Sabalenka said. “I don’t think he showed himself in the best way possible. For me it’s actually so sad to see that the tournament directors and the tournaments are not protecting us as a player. They just care about their sellings, about their tournament and that’s it. His comment was ridiculous. I’m not sure if I ever want to go there after his comment. For me it’s too much.”
The context: “It is a tough decision because you feel like you’re disappointing the tournaments,” Sabalenka said. “You’re disappointing people as well, because they were expecting me to play there and then I didn’t; I pulled out. So it’s a tough decision, and especially for me: I’m the one really struggling to withdraw from the tournaments. I feel really guilty.”
🎾 One to watch: Jennifer Brady vs. Sloane Stephens (1st round - WTA 1000 - Miami): Watch this one for the throwback match that never happened. That’s right. Somehow Brady and Stephens, respectively 30 and 32 years old, have never faced off on the pro tour. With both of their comeback stories looming large in this match-up, we here at Court Theory HQ aren’t missing it.
The record: This will be the first time Jennifer Brady and Sloane Stephens face off.
On the line: Forget the ranking points. For both players, this match is all about getting on the board with a WTA main tour win in 2026, with the hope that it can snowball into something bigger.
🎾 🏆 🎤 YOUR CALL
And that’s game.
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Matches we’re monitoring today:
Miami - WTA 1000 (Hard)
Francesca Jones vs. Venus Williams (1st rd)
Hailey Baptiste vs. Tatjana Maria (1st rd)
Lulu Sun vs. Taylor Townsend (1st rd)
Dayana Yastremska vs. Ashlyn Krueger (1st rd)
Janice Tjen vs. Yulia Putintseva (1st rd)
Caty McNally vs. Rebeka Masarova (1st rd)
Sara Bejlek vs. Talia Gibson (1st rd)
Tereza Valentova vs. Katie Volynets (1st rd)
Ann Li vs. Kimberly Birrell (1st rd)
Emerson Jones vs. Linda Fruhvirtova (1st rd)
Lilli Tagger vs. Ella Seidel (1st rd)
Emiliana Arango vs. Oksana Selekhmeteva (1st rd)
Alycia Parks vs. Sinja Kraus (1st rd)
Victorija Golubic vs. Peyton Stearns (1st rd)
Miami - ATP 1000 (Hard)
Raphael Colignon vs. Grigor Dimitrov (1st rd)
Ethan Quinn vs. Hubert Hurkacz (1st rd)
Denis Shapovalov vs. Botic van de Zandschulp (1st rd)
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Arthur Fery (1st rd)
Reilly Opelka vs. Nuno Borges (1st rd)
Marcos Giron vs. Martin Landaluce (1st rd)
Rafael Jodar vs. Yannick Hanfmann (1st rd)
Darwin Blanch vs. Jan-Lennard Struff (1st rd)
Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard vs. Camilo Ugo Carabelli (1st rd)
Zhizhen Zhang vs. Adrian Mannarino (1st rd)
Zizou Bergs vs. Jenson Brooksby (1st rd)
📺 Learn how to watch today’s action over at Tennis Watchers.
💬 For real-time match commentary and conversation, follow Court Theory on Bluesky.
Coco Gauff says she’s feeling optimistic about playing in Miami after a nerve issue in her arm forced her to retire in Indian Wells.
Chris Eubanks corrects the record on his “beef” with CoCo Vandeweghe.
Handshakes are a part of tennis etiquette, but after reading this piece by Charlie Eccleshare, it makes us question whether or not we should keep it.
Jack Draper says his body is still adjusting to being back in top-level competition.
The BBC talks to Toby Samuel, who went from outside the top 1000 to a position of playing qualies at majors in less than a year.
Nick Kyrgios says he’s playing the grass season this year after accepting a wild card into Stuttgart. We’ll see.
