👋 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.

On tap today, we’ve got: a different kind of Miami heat, Eala takes out Iga, poor scheduling in Miami, Alexander Zverev faces harsh reality, Jessica Pegula takes on Alexandra Eala, plus more in tennis news today.

Let’s tennis!

Three Points

🎾 Something’s not right in Miami: On Wednesday, two health scares have raised some serious questions about the conditions for play at Hard Rock Stadium.

  • First: Grigor Dimitrov inexplicably lost his footing and could have easily rolled an ankle as he fell to the ground. After he won his match against Francisco Cerundolo, he couldn’t catch his breath, remained in his chair for nearly 30 minutes per Tennis Channel, and needed assistance leaving the court. Even then, he had to stop and sit again just outside the court.
  • Second: Not long after Dimitrov, Emma Raducanu required medical attention during her quarterfinal match against Jessica Pegula. While the medical team checked her vitals and gave her an ice massage, the physio had to physically hold her up as Raducanu seemed to slump in her chair and struggled to keep her eyes open.
  • What she said: “I just felt really dizzy,” Raducanu told TennisOne after the loss to Pegula. “I felt faint.” She added: “It was very humid out there and we had a long wait, so maybe it was just an accumulation. [There were] just physical points as well, with long rallies and heavy conditions. I don’t know how I kind of regrouped in that second set but, in the third, I definitely struggled a little bit.”
  • A bit of controversy: During the ordeal, Raducanu received a medical time-out. If that was from loss of conditioning due to the humidity, it’s not allowed by tour rules. But, because the time-out was granted, it has raised questions about whether or not something else was at play for her and Dimitrov. There is no word from Dimitrov at this time.

🎾 Continuing to roll: Alexandra Eala, the Filipina who scored a wild card into the Miami Open, is continuing to win in the most joyous fashion. On Wednesday, she claimed her third win in a row over major titleholders by taking out Iga Swiatek 6-2, 7-5.

  • What she said: “I don’t know what to say,” the 19-year-old said after the match. “I’m in complete disbelief right now, and I’m on cloud nine.”
  • Her game plan: “My coach told me to run, to go for every ball, to take all the opportunities I can because a five-time (grand) slam champion is not going to give you the win.”

🎾 The unforced error we all saw coming: This is a self-inflicted scheduling wound if we’ve ever seen one. Thanks to several hours of rain on Tuesday, the match between Alexander Zverev and Arthur Fils was postponed to Wednesday. In a bit of poor planning, organizers added that match to a full schedule on the stadium court on Wednesday, which was crunched even further because of a later start time of 1:00. Guess what? Three three-set matches put even more stress on the schedule, and the final match between Sebastian Korda and Novak Djokovic was postponed until today because it violated the 11:00 rule.

  • An (understandably) angry crowd: This poor scheduling meant the people who bought tickets for the evening session not only had to wait more than two hours before they could even get into the stadium, but then they were shorted a match that included a massive headliner in Novak Djokovic.
  • A learned lesson?: No way! Today, there are five matches scheduled for the stadium court again with a 1:00 start time. What could they have done? The same thing they should have done yesterday: pick one of the matches and put it on the grandstand court.

And, that’s game.

What They Said

I have been losing a lot of matches that I feel like I couldn't control lately. It was similar again today. So I have to look at myself more than anything else. I think I definitely played better here than I did the last few weeks, but I’m up a break in the third, there is no reason for me to lose this match. I go on to lose four games in a row. In Indian Wells I’m serving for the match, and in Rio I am up 4-1 in the third. In Buenos Aires, I was up a set and a break. I’m just losing a lot of matches from a winning position right now. I need to change that.

-Alexander Zverev after losing to Arthur Fils — his fifth early-round exit in a row as the top seed following the straight-set loss in the final of the Australian Open.

Watch This!

🔥 Jessica Pegula vs. Alexandra Eala (Semifinals WTA 1000 - Miami): Watch this one for the pure joy of seeing a young player exhibit their potential. That’s what Alexandra Eala has done all tournament thus far on her unexpected road to the semifinals of the Miami Open in which she’s taken down three major titleholders. All the pressure will be on Jessica Pegula. How will she handle it? If last night’s contest against Emma Raducanu is any indication, not gracefully. Pegula was unnecessarily irritated throughout the match, even as she was winning. That attitude will only fuel Eala’s positivity and self-assuredness. Expect both players to hit big through the court, with Pegula coming into the net to disrupt Eala. This match may come down to how well Eala serves, which her last victim (Iga Swiatek) couldn’t take advantage of.

  • The record: This semifinal match at the Miami Open will be the first time Alexandra Eala and Jessica Pegula face each other.
  • On the line: For Eala, this is all house money. She’s already defeated three slam champs in a row. What’s another top five player? For Pegula, going into her least favorite part of the year — the clay season — every match counts right now. Losing in the semifinals of a 1000 on a hard court to an upstart is not part of the plan. 

On The Radar

  • Arthur Fils vs. Jakub Mensik (Quarterfinals ATP 1000 - Miami)
  • Aryna Sabalenka vs. Jasmine Paolini (Semifinals WTA 1000 - Miami)
  • Sebastian Korda vs. Novak Djokovic (Quarterfinals ATP 1000 - Miami)
  • Taylor Fritz vs. Matteo Berrettini (Quarterfinals ATP 1000 - Miami)

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

Read, Watch, Listen

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Which matches are you watching? What news caught your eye today? Hit the comments below!