👋 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: Learner Tien’s incredible win, Ben Shelton’s lefty woes, Danielle Collins makes waves, and a whole bunch more.
Let’s tennis!
Four Points
🎾 Fast Learner: Young American qualifier Learner Tien needed five sets (after winning the first two) to take down 5th seed Daniil Medvedev in an overnight battle that lasted nearly five hours. The 19-year-old who is currently ranked 121 in the world was stubborn in not missing a ball for games on end, gutsy when he needed to go for it, and clever in keeping one of the most unpredictable players on tour on his toes. The awkward on-court interview (if you can call it that when the questions were missing), was positively hilarious. What happened from Medvedev’s perspective? Nobody knows. He never showed up to the press conference.
🎾 The hidden downside of being a lefty: After his Thursday win over Pablo Carreno Busta, Ben Shelton noted that the biggest problem of being a lefty is the inability to find a practice partner. “It’s impossible, except for when the draw comes out and they play [Jack] Draper, Shapo [Denis Shapovalov], or Ugo Humbert...Then I get the look. Other than that, people don’t want to practice with you as much.” And players wonder why they have such a hard time against lefties. 🤔
🎾 A new Lys on life: Eva Lys, the young German player who lost in the final round of qualifying, made headlines when she got in the main draw as a lucky loser just 10 minutes before taking court against Kimberly Birrell, who admitted to being more thrown off by the sudden switch than her opponent. But the headline is different now after beating Varvara Gracheva in three sets, moving into the third round against world number 82 Jaqueline Cristian — another winnable match.
🎾 Like she told us, ‘New Year, Same Me’: It may be 2025, but Danielle Collins hasn’t stopped leaning into her petty side. After defeating Australia’s Destanee Aiava 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-2 in a lengthy battle, Collins turned to the crowd that heckled her a bit more than she was willing to take and repeatedly said, “How about that?!” before blowing kisses to them. After the match, she said: “[Those who] bought a ticket to come out here and heckle me, it’s all going toward the Danielle Collins Fund.” The other side: What should have been a lovely moment for Aiava, who has dealt with some serious mental health struggles (and sometimes quite publicly) is now marked by this.
And, that’s game.
Watch This!
🔥 Novak Djokovic vs. Tomas Machac (3rd round — Australian Open): We’re putting this in the upset alert queue already. Djokovic has only dropped one set in each of his first two matches this Australian Open, but he’s looked incredibly vulnerable. He seems to know it, too, given how irritable he’s been during those two relatively routine matches. On the other side of the court is a very in-form Tomas Machac, who is at his career-high ranking of 25 and seemingly has no fear of whoever is across the net. Expect huge hitting from Machac and a strategy that breaks down the Djokovic forehand. As for Djokovic, he’ll likely try to stretch the match out to see just how long Machac can redline.
- The record: The Djokovic-Machac head-to-head is tied at 1-1. Machac has the most recent win, but that was on clay in Geneva last year. Djokovic has the only outdoor hard court win.
- On the line: Machac is looking to prove he can go deep into majors by at least matching his 4th round at the U.S. Open. Djokovic is looking to get back on track at majors after not winning one all of last year.
Keeping an Eye on...
- Aryna Sabalenka vs. Clara Tauson (3rd round — Australian Open)
- Diana Shnaider vs. Donna Vekic (3rd round — Australian Open)
- Jacob Fearnely vs. Alexander Zverev (3rd round — Australian Open)
- Coco Gauff vs. Leylah Fernandez (3rd round — Australian Open)
- Jack Draper vs. Aleksandar Vukic (3rd round — Australian Open)
- Naomi Osaka vs. Belinda Bencic (3rd round — Australian Open)
- Ugo Humbert vs. Arthur Fils (3rd round — Australian Open)
Learn how to watch today’s action over at Tennis Watchers.
Read, Watch, Listen
- If the Australian Open’s “Party Court” is so raucous that matches have to be moved to another court, is it worth “the feature” of having courtside bars?
- The Guardian’s Tumaini Carayol tells the story of how Jacob Fearnley and Jack Draper were friends and doubles partners in the juniors, took divergent paths, and have now wound up in the same spot once again.
- Iga Swiatek fields some revelatory questions from student journalists, and the replies are gold.
- Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis retired from their first-round doubles match against fellow Aussies, James Duckworth and Aleksandar Vukic. There were plenty of injuries to go around.
- Emma Raducanu says she apologized to Andy Murray for pulling out of the mixed doubles on him at the last minute at Wimbledon last year. She claims, “We’re fine now.”
