👋 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.