Good morning, Court Theorists! ☕️☀️🎢
Today’s tennis mood: Dying to see Williams & Williams…and that’s pretty much all I need.
Let’s tennis!
-Allen
🎾 On tap: It’s third-round action in Cincinnati today, which means seeds taking on seeds. Well, except for the 10 who fell yesterday...and, of course, the 8 who dropped the day before. Still, there are some fascinating match-ups: Can Terence Atmane take advantage of the moment against Alexander Zverev the way Tallon Griekspoor did in Montreal? Will Maria Sakkari even out the 4-5 record she has against Iga Swiatek? Is Alex de Minaur ready for Arthur Fery? Alex Eala vs. Amanda Anisimova?!? But the big question is: Who is ready for Serena and Venus Williams to take the court today against Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns? 🙋🏻♂️
🎾 ICYMI: If you were off enjoying the final days of summer at the beach this weekend or playing in your USTA team’s playoffs, you may have missed out on Cincy results. Here’s what’s noteworthy from Sunday…
Montreal champ Ben Shelton lost to Portuguese qualifier Jaime Faria 6-4, 6-4.
Taylor Fritz took down Alex Michelsen 6-3, 6-4.
Felix Auger-Aliassime returned to competition after more than a month, defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 7-5.
Michael Zheng upset 24th seed Ugo Humbert 6-4, 6-3 (and somehow the ATP doesn’t have highlights.
Cincy wild card Sloane Stephens is on a roll, taking down 24th seed Anastasia Potapova 6-2, 6-4.
Leylah Fernandez, seeded 30th, lost to qualifier Xiyu Wang in three lopsided sets.
Barbora Krejcikova was upset by compatriot Sara Bejlik, 7-6, 6-4.
After a slow start, Coco Gauff defeated an in-form Liudmila Samsonova 2-6, 6-4, 6-1.
🎾 TC QC: When Tennis Channel brought on longtime Amazon exec Jeff Blackburn last year to shore up the company’s glitchy (and, let’s face it, underwhelming) streaming products, there was plenty of eye-rolling around a non-tennis interloper’s ability to understand what we tennis fans wanted. That last bit was unfair criticism, but one of the persisting complaints has been the glitchiness in the app: streams not starting when the match does, audio and video not syncing, apps insisting that you aren’t a paying subscriber when you’ve got the receipts, etc. We may be getting one step closer to resolving those issues, because Tennis Channel is hiring one person to monitor all the platforms to fix problems before they get out of hand.
🎾 One to watch: Alex Eala vs. Amanda Anisimova (3rd round - WTA 1000 - Cincinnati): Watch this one for two crowd favorites facing off a bit too early in the tournament. Recent form unquestionably favors Eala. This match will likely be determined by how well Anisimova serves and how error-free her first-strike tennis is.
The record: This will be the first time Amanda Anisimova and Alex Eala face each other.
On the line: For both players, it’s the same: going into the U.S. Open with enough matches under their belt and feeling confident after a below-par showing in Toronto. For Anisimova, the stakes are higher, given that she has U.S. Open finalist points to defend.
🎾 🏆 🎤 YOUR CALL
And that’s game.
