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Three Points

🎾 The Story: Just like Victoria Mboka was the story in Montreal, Terence Atmane is the story of Cincinnati. The French qualifier, who has now won seven rounds of matches to make his way into the semifinals of Cincy, has shocked opponents, fans, and perhaps even himself with two outstanding weeks of play. Last night’s victim was the 7th seed, Holger Rune, whom Atmane dispatched 6-2, 6-3 by clocking 21 winners and knocking down seven aces in an hour and 15 minutes.

  • What he said: “I don’t think any words can describe how I feel right now,” Atmane said after the match. “It’s pretty insane, to be honest. I cannot believe it. Being here in the semi-finals of a Masters 1000, breaking into the top 100, and even more with the win tonight — it’s also a lot of money for me, so it’s going to be very helpful for my career. It means a lot to me. I’m very emotional about it.”
  • And another thing: “I couldn’t really sleep last night with the win against Taylor,” Atmane said. “I was just trying to be myself on court, trying to enjoy it as much as I can because I have nothing to lose. That’s the advantage I have of being the underdog here, coming from the qualies. I think this is going to give me a lot of confidence for the rest of the year and in my career in general.”
  • Yes, but: As James Hansen writes over at The Athletic, it’s been rocky at times for Atmane — some of it his own doing.
  • The numbers: Atmane entered qualifying ranked 136 and having earned $310,376 on the entire season. He will leave Cincinnati with at least $332,160 in his pocket and having jumped up approximately 70 spots to around 70 in the world for his most excellent two weeks of work.
  • Route to the semis: Omar Jasika (qualifying), Li Tu (qualifying), Yoshihito Nishioka, Flavio Cobolli (15), Joao Fonseca, Taylor Fritz (4), Holger Rune (7)
  • Next: Atmane faces Jannik Sinner in the semifinals.

🎾 The schedule, again: I’ve heard from a few of you in the last couple of days by email and on social media expressing your dismay over the finals schedule for Cincinnati after realizing they begin on Monday. And not just on Monday, but at 3:00 pm on Monday. (I did report this in a couple of previous editions of The Daily Theory, but maybe the reality of it is just setting in.) Yes, this is a huge mistake. Our big hope is that the tours come to their senses. Nobody can possibly think it’s a good idea to have the two Canadian 1000s finals on at the same time (a Thursday evening, mind you) and the Cincy finals on a Monday afternoon. That, simply put, is not good tennis business.

  • Yes, but: Getting the heads of the tours to realize they’ve made a mistake is one thing. Getting them to admit it and reverse course is another.

🎾 Coming up: I’m coming off a reporting trip where I spent the last couple of days with a group of players who took themselves off the ATP Challenger Tour and plopped themselves into the unusual training grounds of Berks County, Pennsylvania, to prepare for the U.S. Open. So, stay alert for articles about that in the upcoming days.

And, that’s game.

On The Radar

Matches we’re monitoring today:

Cincinnati - WTA 1000 (Hard)

  • Iga Swiatek vs. Anna Kalinskaya (Quarterfinals)
  • Varvara Gracheva vs. Veronika Kudermetova (Quarterfinals)
  • Aryna Sabalenka vs. Elena Rybakina (Quarterfinals)
  • Jasmine Paolini vs. Coco Gauff (Quarterfinals)

Cincinnati - ATP 1000 (Hard)

  • Andrey Rublev vs. Carlos Alcaraz (Quarterfinals)
  • Ben Shelton vs. Alexander Zverev (Quarterfinals)

📺 Learn how to watch today’s action over at Tennis Watchers.

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