👋 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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Let’s tennis!

Three Points

🎾 A bit of a shock: France’s Cortenin Moutet outplayed, outsmarted, and outlasted Taylor Fritz in the first round of Queen’s Club on Tuesday in a three-hour grass court match, 6-7, 7-6, 7-5.

  • What he said: “He’s very solid — players like him have almost no weaknesses. I knew I had to be at my best from start to finish. Everything came down to small details. I missed a volley, and he broke me back immediately… But it’s in matches like this that I manage to push myself beyond my limits,” Moutet said after the match.
  • Noteworthy: It was Moutet’s second top ten win of his career.
  • The sting: For Fritz, this is a bad loss coming off winning the title in Stuttgart on Sunday, especially since he had a match point in the second set.
  • In unfortunate company: Fellow American Ben Shelton also took an unexpected loss on Tuesday after Arthur Rinderknech of France (are we sensing a theme here?) won a pair of tiebreaks.
  • An explanation?: Players who did well in Stuttgart last week seem to be struggling to make the transition to the grass at Queen’s Club, which is lower and a bit “deader” than the higher-bouncing, somewhat slower grass of Stuttgart.

🎾 Blocked from Wimbledon: The stalker who has made Emma Raducanu’s life a living hell has resurfaced by attempting to buy tickets for Wimbledon this year, according to a BBC report. However, the All England Club’s security measures caught the man’s name and then blocked him from the public ballot.

  • The backstory: Raducanu was visibly shaken and in tears in Dubai earlier this year after seeing a man in the stands who had followed her to several tournaments and had given her a letter the previous day. He was given a restraining order, but released without further action as long as he promised to stay away from Raducanu and professional tennis.
  • The Court Theory take: So far, this individual has never been named. If he can’t abide by the rules for his release, he doesn’t deserve anonymity.

🎾 Added to Wimbledon: Organizers at Wimbledon have announced nearly all the Wimbledon wild cards for this year’s championships. Here’s how that shook out...

  • Women’s wild cards: Jodie Burrage, Harriet Dart, Francesca Jones, Hannah Klugman, Petra Kvitova, Mika Stojsavljevic, Heather Watson, and Mimi Xu
  • Men’s wild cards: Jay Clarke, Oliver Crawford, Dan Evans, Jack Pinnington Jones, George Loffhagen, Johannus Monday, and Henry Searle
  • Notably missing: Roland-Garros semifinalist Lois Boisson, who is currently 67 in the world, but was far from it at the Wimbledon cut-off date.
  • Still to come: There is still one wild card spot for the men’s draw.

And, that’s game.

Watch This!

🔥 Alex Michelsen vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas (2nd round WTA 500 - Halle): Watch this one to see if Tsitsipas can come up with the goods against one of the best problem solvers on tour. Expect Michelsen to try to take the net away from Tsitsipas and use his strong return to put pressure on the Greek’s serve. This match will likely be decided by Michelsen’s ability to keep his serve on track.

  • The record: Alex Michelsen leads the head-to-head record over Stefanos Tsitsipas, 2-0. This will be their first meeting on grass.
  • On the line: Both players have minimal points to defend from last year’s tournament. However, Michelsen has entered grass events every week in the hopes of making a deep run at Wimbledon. Meanwhile, Tsitsipas, whose only Wimbledon warm-up tournament is this week, has considerable pressure to perform well for his grass season coach, Goran Ivanisevic.

On The Radar

More tennis matches we’re monitoring today:

Berlin - WTA 500 (Grass)

  • Paula Badosa vs. Emma Navarro (2nd round)
  • Jasmine Paolini vs. Ons Jabeur (2nd round)
  • Liudmila Samsonova vs. Jessica Pegula (2nd round)

Nottingham - WTA 250 (Grass)

  • Francesca Jones vs. Linda Noskova (2nd round)
  • Leylah Fernandez vs. Cristina Bucsa (2nd round)
  • Yulia Putintseva vs. Rebecca Sramkova (2nd round)

London - ATP 500 (Grass)

  • Alexei Popyrin vs. Jack Draper (2nd round)
  • Dan Evans vs. Brandon Nakashima (2nd round)
  • Holger Rune vs. Mackenzie McDonald (2nd round)

Halle - ATP 500 (Grass)

  • Zizou Bergs vs. Karen Khachanov (1st round)
  • Marcos Giron vs. Alexander Zverev (1st round)
  • Quentin Halys vs. Daniil Medvedev (2nd round)

📺 Learn how to watch today’s action over at Tennis Watchers.

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