👋 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: Refreshed with a touch of disconnect.

Let’s tennis!

Four Points

🎾 Split up: It’s a bit of a strange week on tour. The women are still in the middle of the Asian swing, with a 500-level event in Ningbo and a 250-level tournament in Osaka. Meanwhile, the men have moved westward to a trio of 250 events in Almaty (ok, fine, only slightly west on this one), Brussels, and Stockholm. But there are some other...ahem...events happening this week, too.

🎾 The exos: As the tour season gets longer, so does the exhibition season. In Hong Kong, Patrick Mouratoglou’s Ultimate Tennis Showdown kicked off on Tuesday, with Andrey Rublev, Zhizhen Zhang, Coleman Wong, Jenson Brooksby, and others in the line-up. Then, on Wednesday, the Six Kings Slam begins. In Riyadh, and streamed on Netflix, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev, Novak Djokovic, Taylor Fritz, and Stefanos Tsitsipas will compete for a $6 million payday. All of them get $1.5 million just for showing up, which helps them complain less about the schedule and (most of them) being banged up. 😐

🎾 And news in the semi-exhibition category: United Cup, the team competition that awards ranking points, announced on Monday that Poland is the first country to commit to the January event in Australia. Iga Swiatek and Hubert Hurkacz have been named as the headliners of the team. Poland has been the runner-up for the last two years.

  • What she said: “I love being part of the team and have great memories of playing this event,” Swiatek said. “This tournament is different. It brings more excitement than normal tournaments we play during the year.”
  • Yes, but: This could be a difficult task, given Hurkacz’s absence from the game. Hurkacz, a fan favorite, hasn’t been seen on tour since June when he withdrew in the second round of ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

🎾 Family notes: After that beautiful final between cousins Arthur Rinderknech and Valentin Vacherot in Shanghai last week, turn your attention to sort of the opposite experience in Stockholm. That’s where brothers Elias and Mikael Ymer — both wild cards — have to face each other in the first round today. It’s particularly unfortunate since Mikael Ymer is struggling to return to tennis following an 18-month doping ban for missing tests after reaching 50 in the world.

And, that’s game.

On The Radar

Matches we’re monitoring today:

Ningbo - WTA 500 (Hard)

  • Ajla Tomljanovic vs. Zeynep Sonmez (2nd round)
  • Karolina Muchova vs. Diana Shnaider (2nd round)

Osaka - WTA 250 (Hard)

  • Naomi Osaka vs. Suzan Lamens (2nd round)
  • Sorana Cirstea vs. Katie Boulter (2nd round)
  • Ashlyn Krueger vs. Olga Danilovic (2nd round)

Almaty - ATP 250 (Hard)

  • Beibit Zhukayev vs. Alex Michelsen (1st round)
  • Jan-Lennard Struff vs. Mackenzie McDonald (1st round)
  • Gabriel Diallo vs. James Duckworth (2nd round)
  • Rinky Hijikata vs. Flavio Cobolli (2nd round)

Brussels - ATP 250 (Hard)

  • Francisco Comesana vs. David Goffin (1st round)
  • Zizou Bergs vs. Raphael Collignon (1st round)
  • Joao Fonseca vs. Botic van de Zandschulp (1st round)
  • Eliot Spizzirri vs. Pedro Martinez (1st round)
  • Emil Ruusuvuori vs. Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard (1st round)

Stockholm - ATP 250 (Hard)

  • Elias Ymer vs. Mikael Ymer (1st round)
  • Matteo Berrettini vs. Giulio Zepperi (1st round)
  • Nicolai Budkov Kjaer vs. Marin Cilic (1st round)

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

Read, Watch, Listen

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