👋 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.
Let’s tennis!
Four Points
🎾 A victim of her own success: Madison Keys has been removed from the player entry list at the WTA 250 ATX Open next month thanks to a WTA Tour rule that bars more than one top 10 player from entering the draw. The rule, which is meant to make the lower-level tournaments fair instead of stacked with top talent, means Keys can’t play after winning the Australian Open because Jessica Pegula had already claimed the top 10 allocation. No doubt tournament director Christo van Rensburg had some choice words for the rule when he thought about how many tickets he could sell from having the newly-crowned Australian Open champ at his 250 event.
🎾 Stacking up: There’s another data point in exactly how bad Novak Djokovic’s injury is. He’s pulled out of the Davis Cup tie that Serbia is set to play against Denmark this week in which Djokovic was expected to play Holger Rune. “We are weakened by not playing Novak, but we are still going for the win,” said Serbia captain Viktor Troicki. “The Danes have a great player in Holger Rune, but our players are also great and I believe in my team.”
🎾 Sinner’s dominance: After successfully defending his first major in Melbourne last week, Jannik Sinner leads number two Alexander Zverev by a massive gap of 3,700 points. But that’s not the only measure of his success. His winning percentage as the number one player in the world exceeds any of the other 28 former number ones in history. More than Borg. More than Connors. More than Federer. You get the picture.
🎾 Jack Draper: Charlie Eccleshare from The Athletic had an interesting tidbit over on Bluesky: “Jack Draper to miss Rotterdam, next event will be Doha. He’s also been working with Matt Little, Andy Murray’s old strength and conditioning coach.” There’s certainly nothing wrong with getting his fitness in check. We’ve seen plenty go wrong on this front with injury and persistent problems. But can somebody on his team work on making his matches more efficient? His matches last far too long for the explosive type of tennis he plays. He’s not going to be able to hang with an Alcaraz if he’s spent more than double the amount of time on court from playing insanely long and inefficient matches against lower-ranked players as he did at the Australian Open.
And, that’s game.
Watch This!
🔥 Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Arthur Cazaux (2nd round - ATP 250 - Montpellier): This has all the makings of a fascinating match between a power player in FAA and the unique all-court counterpunching style of Cazaux. Expect Cazaux to extend rallies as much as he can, but he also won’t be afraid to turn defense into offense when the moment presents itself.
The record: Auger-Aliassime leads this head-to-head 2-0, including last year at this very tournament. But both of these matches have gone three sets and Cazaux is significantly more experienced at ATP Tour events this year.
On the line: Cazaux, who is from Montpellier, wants to do well before his hometown crowd. Auger-Aliassime wants to get back to his winning ways after taking the title in Adelaide earlier this month after dropping out of the Australian Open in the second round.
Read, Watch, Listen
The woman who shouted at Alexander Zverev during the men’s Australian Open trophy presentation explains her decision.
Pam Shriver got her trophies from majors back. The car is still missing though.
Henry Patten discusses his “doubles dating” woes before partnering with Harri Heliovaara and winning Wimbledon last year and the Australian Open this year.
A racket Roger Federer used to win Wimbledon and given to Anna Wintour and her daughter is up for auction. It’s expected to fetch into the six figures. One question: Why isn’t it still in the Wintour household?
Mirra Andreeva picks up a Rolex sponsorship.
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Which matches are you watching? What news caught your eye today? Hit the comments below!
