Good morning, Court Theorists! ☕️☀️🗽
Today’s tennis mood: Relieved for a positive Stanimal outcome and pleased for Muchova and Mensik.
Let’s tennis!
-Allen
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🎾 On tap: It’s quarterfinals day in Monterrey and Winston-Salem. If history serves as a guide, this is often when top players withdraw to travel to — and get settled in — New York. However, this year there aren’t too many top seeds left in those draws, so we’ll see. Perhaps more importantly, it’s qualifying day at the U.S. Open. These matches are some of the most heartfelt of the year. We’ve got new talent attempting to make their major main draw debut. And we’ve got Kei Nishikori trying for a final U.S. Open appearance.
🎾 Wild card news: We’re just days away from the U.S. Open main draw kicking off, but there’s still some wild card news rolling in — and there’s more yet to come.
Venus and Serena Williams have been awarded a wild card into the women’s doubles draw. That’s not a huge surprise, save for the fact that Serena could have been a question mark, given her knee issue.
Stan Wawrinka received a wild card into the singles draw after Patrick Kypson, who received the final wild card, withdrew due to injury. Wrong method, right result.
🎾 Mixed: Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik, the Czech team that received a last-minute wild card into the mixed doubles draw, won the title and the $1 million prize in a late-night battle over Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli, 6-3, 1-6, 10-6.
What she said: “Our outfits made a difference tonight,” Muchova said after the match, noting their maroon and distilled pink Adidas fits.
Noteworthy: U.S. Open organizers had their wish of singles players paired together dominating the draw fulfilled — all four teams in the semifinals were comprised of singles players.
And that’s game.
