👋 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.