👋 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!
Four Points
🎾 Davis Cupping: The United States kicked off their first round of Davis Cup with a pair of wins against Chinese Taipei. Alex Michelsen and Marcos Giron handled their opponents in a straightforward manner. They’re back in action tonight, as are the doubles team of Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek. Should they advance, they would face the winner of Korea vs. Czechia.
🎾 Unhappy numbers for The Happy Slam: The 2025 Australian Open ratings on ESPN and ESPN2 were down 11% on the whole, with the men’s final down 12%, according to Front Office Sports. However (and let me say this loud and clear!), Madison Keys defeating Aryna Sabalenka in the women’s final drew in 452,000 viewers on ESPN — a 34% increase over last year. Of course, there could be a number of explanations at work here, including more people choosing to stream the matches on ESPN+ and fewer hours on the cable channels dedicated to the AO.
🎾 Jannik Sinner’s not the best? 🤔 Out of the four majors this year and the one this year, Jannik Sinner has won three of them. In his Australian Open finalist speech, Alexander Zverev, the player who is immediately ranked below Sinner at number two in the world, referred to him as “the best player in the world by far.” And for good reason: Sinner leads him (again, the number two player) by a whopping 3700 points. But celebrity coach Patrick Mouratoglou wants tennis fans to believe none of that. “Jannik is not above everyone,” Mouratoglou argued in an Instagram Reel. “I don’t think he is above Carlos. I think when Carlos is at his best, there is a real match and I’m not sure who’s gonna win. Nobody can say who’s gonna win.” If we were all only judged at our best...
🎾 The beef has a soundtrack: Destanee Aiava, the Australian player who knows a thing or two about giving fans what they want, has a simple idea she borrowed from several other sports, making us wonder why it hasn’t already been done.
can somebody on the player council put forward a request for walk on songs that we choose ourselves for wtas/slams like they have in boxing
— Des Aiava (@destaneeaiava) January 30, 2025
it would add so much spice especially if u and ur opp have beef and ur throwing shade from the get go with ur choice of walk on song
And, that’s game.
What They Said
I don’t think I need to change anything in my game. You look at Zverev, and he has improved a lot lately. Before his injury, he was a consistent top-five player, but today, he has already improved and is a contender for the Grand Slams this year...That’s what I want to do. My next step is not to win a particular tournament but to maximize my potential. If I can do that, I can win big matches and tournaments.
-Holger Rune talking to reporters ahead of Davis Cup play.
Watch This!
🔥 Ann Li vs. Anna Kalinskaya (Semifinals — WTA 250 — Singapore): This is the kind of match you watch because you want to see what somebody can do. That’s the case for Ann Li. By ranking (#18 vs. #85), this shouldn’t be a close match. By form, this should be a seriously close match. Li is coming off a number of good wins in the last six months that brought home a 125 title and the finalist run at the WTA 500 tournament in Merida. She also pushed eventual Australian Open champ Madison Keys to a close 6-4, 7-5 match in the first round.
Expect courageous hitting from both throughout the match, which will likely be decided by the unforced error count. But just as important will be which one is more successful at turning defense to 0ffense (spoiler alert: they’re both strong on this front) and how well Li serves (she knocks down a surprisingly high number of aces at 5’7”.
- The record: This will be the first time Kalinskaya and Li face each other.
- On the line: All the pressure is on Kalinskaya, the tournament’s first seed. For Li, she wants to keep her momentum of strong play and challenging top opponents going.
Keeping an Eye on...
In addition to a ton of Davis Cup action, here are the matches we’re monitoring:
- Karolina Muchova vs. Anastasia Potapova (Quarterfinals — WTA 500 — Linz)
- Ekaterina Alexandrova vs. Petra Martic (Quarterfinals — WTA 500 — Linz)
- Yunchaokete Bu vs. Felix Auger-Aliassime (Quarterfinals — ATP 250 — Montpellier)
- Tallon Griekspoor vs. Jesper de Jong (Quarterfinals — ATP 250 — Montpellier)
Learn how to watch today’s action over at Tennis Watchers.
Read, Watch, Listen
- Pam Shriver got her Grand Slam trophies back, as well as some family photos. The story is as surprising as you might expect.
- It might seem natural now, but Bjorn Fratangelo did not like telling Madison Keys what to do.
- Even after Jack Draper and Cameron Norrie pulled out of Davis Cup, Great Britain is still holding firm against Japan as Billy Harris and Jacob Fearnley step up, with the latter pulling off a win against an increasingly in-form Kei Nishikori.
- Nick Kyrgios pulls out of Davis Cup, leaving Australia with yet another player on the injury list as they face Sweden. Meanwhile, Kyrgios says he’s playing Indian Wells.
- Tim Henman says Wimbledon won’t be joining the other majors as a 15-day event.
