👋 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.
Programming note: Today’s edition is a bit abbreviated due to travel. If you’ll be at the U.S. Open in the next few days, maybe we can meet up! Hit reply and tell me your plans.
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Let’s tennis!
Two Points
🎾 Mixed reviews: The U.S. Open mixed doubles event kicked off on Tuesday. As predicted, fans and players are having fun. But doubles aficionados were left feeling a bit disappointed. When you fill the draw with singles players who don’t know how to play doubles, it shows. Basic two up, two back formations. Nice groundstrokes without purpose. And the few doubles players who were allowed to play picked them apart.
- Noteworthy: Before the first match even took court, there was drama: Who was going to fill the draw after Jannik Sinner had to withdraw due to whatever was ailing him in the Cincinnati final? Answer: Danielle Collins and Christian Harrison. That turned out to be a great substitution because they took out Bencic and Zverev and then Townsend and Shelton without dropping a set.
🎾 Curious match: This is less about the match and more about one player. It’s Emma Navarro vs. Alycia Parks in Monterrey. This was not a planned stop for Navarro, who was originally set to play mixed doubles at the U.S. Open with Jannik Sinner. But a year’s worth of early round exits (save for winning the title in Merida in February) caused the former top ten player to regroup and grab some last-minute matches in Mexico. Let’s see if this week gets her what she needs or if it just reinforces the lackluster season it’s been thus far.
