👋 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

🎾 Tiebreak marathon: Taylor Fritz probably wasn’t looking for a three-hour match in the round of 16, but that’s what he got against Jiri Lehecka. It took three tiebreaks for the American to get through the match in which neither player lost a service game, although both had their chances. Fritz saved nine break points, while Lehecka saved five.

  • What they said: “I think just in the end [it was about] really accepting what was there for me tonight,” said Fritz. “Luckily for me, I was serving really, really well tonight. He was too...When it came down to that tie-break, I really bailed myself out with a lot of first serves, and then just trying to put balls in the court and not try any shots that, despite how badly I wanted to try to be aggressive, just be disciplined and just make the balls that I felt like I could make.”
  • The numbers: While Fritz won 82% of his first serve points, his first serve percentage was a touch low at 59%. His 16 aces compared to only five double faults was an impressive ratio. But his winners-to-unforced-errors ratio (31 to 48) was significantly imbalanced.
  • Next: Fritz faces Andrey Rublev in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.

🎾 The schedule: Here we are at the quarterfinals of a pair of 1000 events. And, instead of the feeling of action ramping up, it has the disappointment of things petering out. With four days left to go, each tournament is without a day session and just two matches in the evening (Montreal has one doubles match in the afternoon, Toronto three). Tomorrow will be the same.

  • The problem: This sporadic play is the direct result of expanding 1000 events to 12 days. It was already a challenge when you have men and women on the same site. But when they’re apart, it’s that much more apparent. With this schedule in Canada, how do you keep attention for the days leading up to the final when it’s on a Thursday? The answer may well be that you don’t — especially when Cincy starts on the same day.

🎾 The ticket: If you’ve been waiting in the hopes that resale ticket prices for a grounds pass at the U.S. Open would go down, sorry to say that’s emphatically not the case. And if you want to grab one for Labor Day weekend, that could cost you on average about $500. Again, for a grounds pass. (h/t Bill Bender)