👋 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.

Let’s tennis!

Three Points

🎾 More change, more problems: The ATP has announced changes for the 2026 calendar. Changes the ATP points out include: Estoril rejoins the calendar as an ATP 250 event in July, Marseille ATP 250 moves from February to October, Stockholm ATP 250 moves from October to November, and Metz ATP 250 has been removed from the calendar. On the whole, it seems like real consideration has been paid to player concerns while still moving forward toward to a unified ‘super tour. Still, 24 weeks will be spent on majors and 1000 tournaments alone. What kind of pressure will that put on top players when it comes to smaller tournaments, Davis Cup, and other team events? We’ll have to wait and see.

🎾 CAS strikes again: The Court of Arbitration for Sport reduced the suspension of Swedish player Dragos Madaras from four years and six months to two years after he refused to cooperate in an anti-corruption investigation. The CAS acknowledged the wrongdoing but didn’t feel the punishment fit the crime — something worth noting as Jannik Sinner faces his own case is set to be evaluated this spring.

🎾 Don’t call it a comeback: Petra Kvitova, one of the WTA Tour’s most beloved players of all time, announced on Monday that she’s returning to the tour — and pronto! Kvitova said she will be playing in Austin later this month and plans to play in the Sunshine Double, as well. In a video posted on Instagram, the new mom said “I can’t wait to see all my fans, all around the world,” adding, “Thank you very much for supporting me. It will be a nice journey, and I can’t wait.” Before leaving the tour, Kvitova finished 2023 at number 14 in the WTA rankings after winning titles that year in Miami and Berlin.

And, that’s game.

What They Said

Why are you giving me a time violation? You have some problem. The ball girl didn’t give me the ball. Do you see? Open your eyes. No, you don’t have eyes, man. You’re so bad. I remember with Karen Khachanov. I remember you don’t have eyes. ... You have a problem. Absolute rubbish, unbelievable. You guys are absolute rubbish every match.

-Daniil Medvedev to chair umpire Adel Nour after receiving a time violation.

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Watch This!

🔥 Marcos Giron vs. Casper Ruud (1st round ATP 500 - Dallas): Nearly 40 spots in the rankings may separate these two, but this is an important match to watch. Ruud, who is currently number five in the world, has been on and off the struggle bus ever since the U.S. Open, logging six first-match exits at tournaments of all sizes. Meanwhile, Giron packed it in at the end of October and put in a serious training block, which appears to be paying off in 2025 thus far.

  • The record: Ruud leads this head-to-head record 2-1, with the Norwegian winning the most recent match in a last year in Los Cabos in which Giron won only one game.
  • On the line: Ruud desperately needs to get something going to take some pressure off the points he has to defend in the spring. Giron has his own pressure on that front, given he was finalist at last year’s Dallas Open, even if the 2024 edition was only a 250 event.

Keeping an Eye on...

  • Marketa Vondrousova vs. Emma Raducanu (1st round WTA 500 - Abu Dhabi)
  • Ons Jabeur vs. Jelena Ostapenko (1st round WTA 500 - Abu Dhabi)
  • Simona Halep vs. Lucia Bronzetti (1st round WTA 250 - Cluj-Napoca)
  • Varvara Gracheva vs. Peyton Stearns (1st round WTA 250 - Cluj-Napoca)
  • Andrey Rublev vs. Zhizhen Zhang (1st round ATP 500 - Rotterdam)
  • Carlos Alcaraz vs. Botic van de Zandschulp (1st round ATP 500 - Rotterdam)
  • Lorenzo Sonego vs. Hoger Rune (1st round ATP 500 - Rotterdam)
  • Tommy Paul vs. Jenson Brooksby (1st round ATP 500 - Dallas)
  • Aleksandar Vukic vs. Ben Shelton (1st round ATP 500 - Dallas)

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!