👋 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

🎾 All aboard the struggle bus: For the last few weeks, the top ten on both the ATP and WTA tours have been struggling — and badly. Citing fatigue, lack of motivation, terrible tour schedules, off-court drama, illness, and...ahem...a doping suspension, there doesn’t seem to be a single player in the top ten among the men or the women performing up to par. And it’s only February. What does that hold for the rest of the season as it ramps up with the Sunshine Double less than two weeks away? Magic 8 Ball says: “Outlook not so good.”

🎾 Iga doubles down: After Iga Swiatek lost to Mirra Andreeva in two convincing sets, 6-3, 6-3, she made it clear the tour schedule is what did her in. “Honestly, I’m not that direct usually, but I would blame this performance on the lack of practice before because I didn't have time.” She added: “Again, like, we need to switch continents, we need to switch surfaces, we need to switch the balls. Yeah, it’s not easy.” It’s a familiar refrain from the world number two (and much of top pros on the ATP and WTA tours). So far, the tournament seems to be getting more complicated — not less.

🎾 Almost pulled a muscle patting ourselves on the back: Not to toot our own horn, but did we call that Berrettini-Draper match or what?!? The nearly two-and-a-half match was filled with some of their best recent tennis. As one Court Theory reader put it, “This is a banger. You picked a good one.” Draper’s win over Berrettini 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 moves him into the semifinals today against an equally hot Jiri Lehecka. (Ordinarily, the highlights would be linked here. But somebody at ATP Media has been falling asleep behind the wheel lately.)

And, that’s game.

What They Said

I’ve talked with my team, with my coach, and honestly I don’t know what I could have done better...Probably a few serves, a few points that probably I didn’t play a good point. Honestly, I don’t know. It was kind of a difficult feelings, I guess. I mean, I have to give credit to him as well, because when he was down, especially in the third set, he didn’t give up.

-Carlos Alcaraz on his loss to Jiri Lehecka after leading 4-2 in the third set before losing four straight games to end the match.

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Watch This!

🔥 Clara Tauson vs. Karolina Muchova (Semifinals WTA 1000 - Dubai): Karolina Muchova is one of the best problem solvers on tour. Let’s see if she can (or needs to) solve the problem of Clara Tauson’s week of hitting twice as many winners as unforced errors. Expect huge hitting from Tauson set up by a big serve. From Muchova, we should expect tons of variety to try to throw Tauson off her game. Angles, slices, off-pace forehands, and coming into the net is what the Czech player will serve up.

  • The record: This is the first time Tauson and Muchova will face each other.
  • On the line: Clara Tauson is coming into her own this year, learning how to win whether or not she’s playing her best — and she wants to see how long she can keep this going. Meanwhile, Karolina Muchova is marching back toward the top ten and a shot at 1000-level title would be a massive catapult in that direction.

On The Radar

  • Elena Rybakina vs. Mirra Andreeva (Semifinals WTA 1000 - Dubai)
  • Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Andrey Rublev (Semifinals ATP 500 - Doha)
  • Jiri Lehecka vs. Jack Draper (Semifinals ATP 500 - Doha)
  • Camilo Ugo Carabelli vs. Jaime Faria (Quarterfinals ATP 500 - Rio)
  • Francisco Cerundolo vs. Alexandre Muller (Quarterfinals ATP 500 - Rio)

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!