👋 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: The weeklong post-Wimbledon break was intentional. However, the delayed return was not. We have a sinus infection to thank for that. So, today’s edition is a little different than usual. With a bit of luck, we’ll be back to full strength and our regularly scheduled program tomorrow.

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Let’s tennis!

Three Points

🎾 Career extension: When Venus Williams accepted a wild card to play the Mubadala Citi DC Open, there were the usual moans from some who think she has been given too many wild cards too late into her career. On Monday, the 45-year-old stepped onto the court with Hailey Baptiste, a player half her age, and the two simply dominated with some scintillating doubles.

  • Wishlist: Can we just have a few solid years of Venus forgoing singles to concentrate on doubles? She looked ready, relaxed, and perfectly in her element. And it looked like she could keep doing that for years to come.
  • Next: Venus faces Peyton Stearns in the first round of singles on Tuesday.

🎾 Canada notes: Action is set to start in Montreal for the women and Toronto for the men next week, but it will be without some of the sport’s biggest names after some headliner withdrawals. Aryna Sabalenka, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Jack Draper, and Novak Djokovic have all pulled out of the National Bank Open.

  • What they said: With the exception of Jack Draper (who said he needed time to get his arm right), the players are citing some form of fatigue.
  • Why it matters: The withdrawals signal to the tours that the schedule is too much as the pair of National Bank Opens expand to the two-week format for the first time.
  • Noteworthy: When Canadian tournament organizers decided to hold the finals on...<checks notes>...a Thursday night, certainly they expected star power to draw in the fans. Now they’re down a handful of the stars they needed in that calculation before the tournament even begins.

🎾 Go blue!: Blue rackets. They’re everywhere now. Yonex, Babolat, Dunlop. And, on Monday, Wilson officially launched its newest and bluest Ultra, complete with a matching dress and accessories line. Players in Washington showed off the new frame as they took the court for practice and matches. And then things got awkward. Tecnifibre was also seeking some attention at the tournament they sink a ton of money into as an official sponsor of the Mubadala Citi DC Open, as they launched their new blue T-Fight ID.

  • One question: Which one got more attention? Not sure. But maybe Tecnifibre will get more bang for their buck when Daniil Medvedev takes court against Reilly Opelka on Wednesday.