👋 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.

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On tap today: Stefanos Tsitsipas hires Goran Ivanisevic (at least for a little while), Alex de Minaur tries to explain his shocking loss, Amelie Mauresmo serves up an unsatisfying answer on night matches, Frances Tiafoe takes on Sebastian Korda, plus more in today’s tennis news.

Let’s tennis!

Three Points

🎾 Another new coach: Stefanos Tsitsipas has announced that he’s hired Goran Ivanisevic as his new coach. The arrangement is good for the grass court season, with the aim of a better performance at Wimbledon, where he’s only reached the fourth round.

  • What he said: “Working with Goran is an exciting opportunity for me,” Tsitsipas said on Thursday. “He is someone who has reached the highest levels of tennis, both as a player and as a coach. I am confident that his experience will help me grow further and I am really looking forward to that.”
  • A stipulation: According to multiple reports, Ivanisevic required that Tsitsipas’ father, Apostolos, remain on the sidelines during his tenure. As we may collectively recall, that promise has been made before with other coaches.

🎾 Still stepping in it: With more WTA players adding to the growing chorus of the opinion that it is unacceptable to keep women’s matches from the night session at Roland-Garros, tournament director Amelie Mauresmo finally weighed in, insisting it has nothing to do with the quality of play on the women’s side.

  • What she said: “It has never been that the girls are not worthy to play at night,” Mauresmo said on Friday. “It’s never been this, and I will not accept that you carry this message.” She added: “It’s the length of the matches, not the level they reach.”
  • Not buying it: “I do think that women’s matches are worthy of a night spot,” Gauff said after her match on Friday. “From my experience playing at the U.S. Open, a night match at 7 pm with Novak [Djokovic] following me – and he’s the greatest player of all time – people were almost just as excited to see me play as him. Same with other places I play, like Australia.”
  • Worth repeating: Markets are made. They don’t fall from the sky. And every time a contract is negotiated, whether it’s for an individual player’s sponsor or a massive television contract, women get a smaller cut because they’re systematically left off the biggest stages.

🎾 A hard loss: In a five-set battle, 9th-seeded Alex de Minaur took a surprise second-round loss to Alexander Bublik, who is now ranked outside the top 50. The Australian was up two sets to love when everything fell apart.

  • What he said: “There’s no excuse for myself, what happened today. I need to look at myself in the mirror and find out the reason, because ultimately, this isn’t going to change. I have to adapt and make sure it doesn’t happen again.” He added: “No illness, no injury. Look, I’m just tired. I’m tired mentally. I’m a little bit burnt out, if anything.”
  • Recently: This loss probably stings more than others partially because de Minaur made a greater effort this year to adapt his game to clay, which was made apparent in his semifinal run to Monte Carlo, quarterfinal appearance in Barcelona, and rounds of 16 in Madrid and Rome, defeating several strong dirt-ballers along the way.
  • A need for change: In a recurring theme on the tour, de Minaur pointed out that his burnout is a direct result of the tour schedule. “The solution is simple, you shorten the schedule,” he said after the match. “What’s not normal is that for the past three or four years, I’ve had two days off after Davis Cup and I’ve gone straight into pre-season and the new season...Once you start, you don’t finish until November 24. It’s just never-ending.”

And, that’s game.

What They Said

When I went to Brazil, I played against Fonseca, and I didn’t complain about the public. You’ve got no choice. When you go to Australia, you play Australians. When you go to New York, you play Americans. People are screaming in your ears for three or four hours. What can you do about this? You can’t complain about the public. This is just part of the game...I think that the French public is one of the best, if not the best, and that’s just the way it is.

-Arthur Fils on Jaume Munar’s complaints about raucous French crowds following their five-set match on Thursday, which Fils won 6-4 in the fifth set.

Watch This!

🔥 Frances Tiafoe vs. Sebastian Korda (3rd round): Two American seeds facing off in the third round of a major? Let’s get it on! 🤼 Tiafoe has quietly gone through his first two rounds without dropping a set — a sign that he is calm and focused. Meanwhile, Korda is looking just as fresh, losing just one set to Luciano Darderi in the first round. All of that means we should see the tough battles these two put on every time they step on the court to face each other. This match will most likely be decided not by shots, but by how well they keep their focus and nerves in check.

  • The record: The head-to-head record between Frances Tiafoe and Sebastian Korda is tied at 3-3. They’ve played on every surface, but this will be their first contest in a best-of-five scenario.
  • On the line: They’ve each covered their points from last year, so the winner has a chance to move up in the rankings. More than that, both Korda and Tiafoe are looking for a run into the second week after extremely spotty years thus far, in which they each made the final of a 250 event, but otherwise mostly had early round losses.
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On The Radar

More tennis matches we’re monitoring today:

Roland-Garros - WTA (Clay)

  • Elena Rybakina vs. Jelena Ostapenko (3rd round)
  • Victoria Mboko vs. Qinwen Zheng (3rd round)
  • Bernarda Pera vs. Elina Svitolina (3rd round)
  • Clara Tauson vs. Amanda Anisimova (3rd round)

Roland-Garros - ATP (Clay)

  • Damir Dzumhur vs. Carlos Alcaraz (3rd round)
  • Lorenzo Musetti vs. Mario Navone (3rd round)
  • Karen Khachanov vs. Tommy Paul (3rd round)
  • Ben Shelton vs. Matteo Gigante (3rd round)

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

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For real-time match commentary and conversation, follow Court Theory on Bluesky.