👋 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 (strange) change a-comin’: As previously noted in The Daily Theory, the ATP announced some significant changes to the 2026 calendar. But this year, Cincinnati, Toronto, and Montreal made some puzzling moves. Cincinnati has expanded from a 9-day event to 14 after keeping the finals on Monday and starting qualifying earlier. And, perhaps more baffling, Montreal and Toronto have expanded to a total of 14 days, with the finals on Thursday. Yes, you read that correctly. Thursday. Tennis own goals once again.
🎾 The managing mindset: After his first-round win in Dallas on Wednesday, Reilly Opelka gave some interesting insight into how he’s been forced into a “managing mindset” for his injuries since he returned to the tour last year — and at what expense that mindset comes. “I really want to get out of that mindset,” Opelka said. “I want to be focused on winning and playing my best tennis...It’s really important to make the most out of your practice days. You can’t do that if you’re managing your body, managing pain all the time. I really want to try to get on the other end of it and make those days off practice days, and not recovery days.”
🎾 Mixed up again?: Some players, coaches, and industry people are concerned about what the expanded U.S. Open schedule will do to the mixed doubles schedule at the final major of the year. In what is perhaps the most underutilized event at any of the slams, the U.S. Open — if reports are correct — could be wrecking it altogether by scheduling it during qualifying week and making it essentially an invitational event. What were we saying about own goaling again?
And, that’s game.
What They Said
I’m happy. The goal was to do a few things well ... but really to fight for every point, be myself, enjoy the match, the stage, the opponent. Because on some occasions, I haven’t enjoyed it as much as I should have and could have. I saw it as an opportunity, and losing that second set was disappointing, but it was also a way to have an extra hour of tennis with Medvedev — something I would pay a lot of money for.
-Mattia Bellucci after beating Daniil Medvedev in Rotterdam.
Watch This!
🔥 Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Tallon Griekspoor (2nd round ATP 500 - Rotterdam): Tsitsipas may be the 6th seed, but it’s Griekspoor who put on a gutsy performance against Matteo Berrettini in the previous round. Tsitsipas will look to hammer serves and forehands and hope that’s enough to get him over the finish line. Expect Griekspoor to rush Tsitsipas off the ground with heavy pace and hugging the baseline to force errors or short balls he can attack. And when that’s not enough, he’ll rely on his home crowd during tough moments in the match.
- The record: Stefanos Tsitsipas leads the head-to-head record over Tallon Griekspoor 1-0. However, that single match was more than two years ago at the Australian Open.
- On the line: The indoor season is important for Griekspoor. It’s when he racks up points. Add to that his wish to not disappoint a Dutch crowd. For Tsitsipas, he’s looking to jumpstart his 2025 season after a messy appearance at United Cup and losing in the first round at the Australian Open.
Keeping an Eye on...
- Elena Rybakina vs. Ons Jabeur (Quarterfinals WTA 500 - Abu Dhabi)
- Lucia Bronzetti vs. Peyton Stearns (2nd round WTA 250 - Cluj-Napoca)
- Carlos Alcaraz vs. Andrea Vavassori (2nd round ATP 500 - Rotterdam)
- Frances Tiafoe vs. Yoshihito Nishioka (2nd round ATP 500 - Dallas)
- Michael Mmoh vs. Casper Ruud (2nd round ATP 500 - Dallas)
- Tommy Paul vs. Ethan Quinn (2nd round ATP 500 - Dallas)
- Taylor Fritz vs. Denis Shapovalov (2nd round ATP 500 - Dallas)
Learn how to watch today’s action over at Tennis Watchers.
Read, Watch, Listen
- Emma Raducanu receives another wild card — this time for the 1000 event next week in Qatar.
- Speaking of Raducanu, Simon Briggs writes that Andy Murray is the answer to all of her problems.
- Everyone was wiped out from this point.
- Taylor Fritz handled Arthur Rinderknech — and the drama between the two seems behind them now.
