👋 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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Today’s tennis mood rating: Eyebrow-raising with a side of disappointment.

Let’s tennis!

Three Points

🎾 Rough return: Ben Shelton’s return to the tour after withdrawing from the U.S. Open with a shoulder injury was a difficult one, losing to an in-form David Goffin in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4. Shelton had few chances to work his way back into tour-level tennis with the kinds of stats Goffin put up. He hit three times as many winners to unforced errors: 18-6. And he landed 77 percent first serves, winning 83 percent of those points.

  • What he said: “From the start, I started to feel really well with my ground strokes,” Goffin said after the match. “I took the ball early, I was returning really well and serving really well, like the first round. I just managed to save a couple of break points, but I think overall I served really well, and I played really well after my serve, so I think that was the key to put pressure on Ben. But at the end it was tough to finish it, but I made it with a good service game, so I’m really happy.”
  • Why it matters: For the first time in his career, Shelton has put himself in a good position to qualify for the ATP Tour Finals in Turin. Currently in the sixth position, he needs some more wins to secure his spot in the top eight.
  • Next: Unless he accepts a wild card to a tournament after Shanghai is over, Shelton won’t have another chance until his next scheduled event at the end of the month in Basel.

🎾 Where’s the fire?: There’s no sugarcoating this one. Frances Tiafoe continues to look lost. On Thursday, Tiafoe, now ranked 28th, lost to qualifier Yannick Hanfmann in three sets, only winning three games total in the second and third sets. That puts him on a five-match losing streak (including his two losses in Davis Cup). But the losses are much less concerning than how he’s conducting himself on court. There’s no fire, no urgency, and, seemingly, no game plan. It looks as though he’d rather be anywhere but on the court — and it’s been like this for months. Coach David Witt has been a calming force in Tiafoe’s camp. But now Tiafoe needs a yin to his Witt’s yang, even if it’s just for a little while.

🎾 The rush: Patrick Mouratoglou says he is confident that Jack Draper will play his London UTS event in December, despite Draper having pulled the plug on his year due to an arm injury that sidelined him after Wimbledon and once again at the U.S. Open. “He was very confident — otherwise he wouldn’t accept to be invited,” Mouratoglou, reasoned to BBC Sport.

  • Recently: “Unfortunately the injury to my arm is something I have to rest and means I’ll be sitting out the rest of 2025. It is very difficult for me to accept as I was building some incredible momentum this year and playing some great stuff,” Draper posted on social media less than a month ago.
  • One question: After pulling out of the Six Kings Slam, the ATP Tour Finals, and other ATP events, is this exhibition really the thing you want to rush back to play?