👋 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
🎾 Novak, Back?: After Novak Djokovic raised questions as to whether or not 2025 was his last Australian Open, tournament director Craig Tiley quickly jumped in to confidently say Djokovic is not done yet. “There was some talk about Novak (not coming back here) – Novak will return,” Tiley told Australian media on Monday. “We’ll see Novak back and I look forward to catching up with him in the next couple of weeks.” Tiley offered no reason for his claim. Perhaps he just knows the mind of a champion. Or he found out Djokovic was just blowing off steam from the way he was treated by the crowd. Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time Tiley got ahead of a player on committing to the AO. He prematurely announced Rafa Nadal would play in 2024, but that was nowhere near the case.
🎾 Maybe it finally sunk in: Emma Raducanu lost in the first round of Singapore to Cristina Busca, a player from Spain just outside the top 100, in a match that lasted more than three hours. Still, she saw some positives: “For me to be playing this kind of match, all I need is time on court and a match-competitive situation, which I got today. I got it in abundance – over three hours of it – so, for me, it’s really valuable because every match I play, I feel like it’s a win.” Of course, fans and critics alike have been calling for more time playing tournaments and less time going home for additional practice for more than a year. Let’s see if she means it.
🎾 Missing the point: Longtime Tennis columnist Peter Bodo takes players (but, really, Danielle Collins) for waging wars with tennis fans — a situation that rarely ends well for fans. In one sense, he’s not wrong. Fans, in large part, pay the bills — something Collins acknowledged. But he came off as a bit disingenuous when he wrote: “They had the right to cheer for whomever the hell they wanted. It’s unlikely they bought their tickets to go ga-ga for Collins.” Danielle Collins has played enough pro tennis to know this, of course. But that wasn’t her beef. She wasn’t whining that nobody was cheering for her (because some fans were doing just that). It was the constant heckling that went overboard. Should she have escalated things once the match was over? Probably not. But let’s get the facts straight, Bodo.
And, that’s game.
Watch This!
🔥 Adrian Mannarino vs. Richard Gasquet (1st round - ATP 250 - Montpellier): These two senior French members of the tour facing off in the first round in Montpellier? Yes, please. Expect peak French flair on one side of the net and French drama on the other. You can decide which one is which.
- The record: Gasquet leads this head-to-head 3-1. However, Mannarino won their most recent meeting a year and a half ago on the hard courts of Cincinnati.
- On the line: Gasquet intends to retire after Roland-Garros this year, so every match counts in terms of ending on a high note and performing well in Paris this spring. As for Mannarino, he’s dropped nearly a hundred spots from his career-high ranking of 17 only one year ago after several first-round losses in recent months. He’s looking to climb back into the top 100 to avoid qualifying at the majors.
Keeping an Eye on...
- Tallon Griekspoor vs. Botic van de Zandschulp (1st round - ATP 250 - Montpellier)
- Eva Lys vs. Petra Martic (1st round - WTA 500 - Linz)
- Ann Li vs. Maria Timofeeva (2nd round - WTA 250 - Singapore)
Learn how to watch today’s action over at Tennis Watchers.
Read, Watch, Listen
- At The Athletic, Matt Futterman sees an Australian Open-Silicon Valley parallel.
- After nearly a decade in business, our friends at Racquet are still having “Firsts.” This time: a beautiful digital feature on Taylor Fritz.
- Andy Roddick and Kim Clijsters chop up the Australian Open on his Served podcast.
- Joel Drucker goes into just how far Jannik Sinner is pulling away from the rest of the field.
