👋 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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Let’s tennis!

Three Points

🎾 A life of learning: As if it wasn’t enough of a gift just to have Venus Williams back on the court in Washington, here’s another: at this stage of life, Venus approaches our sport the same way she always has. In her post-match comments after losing to Magdalena Frech in the second round on Thursday night, there were no grandiose revelations about her game or talk about how much harder things are at 45. Instead, it was a refreshingly simple message about learning and life.

  • What she said: “Oh, I had so much fun. Definitely not the result I wanted, but still a learning experience. The part about sport (and) life is that you never stop learning,” said Williams. “I got to play a lot of matches here, and that definitely was a plus. The fans in D.C. are just epic. I couldn’t have been happier with my first week back.”
  • Next: Venus Williams heads to Cincy after receiving a wild card into the Cincinnati Open. (After that? The U.S. Open? 🙏🏻)

🎾 The match: Ben Shelton vs. Frances Tiafoe. There’s a reason this one is in prime time. Expect huge competitive drama from beginning to end, with Tiafoe drawing on his hometown crowd to electrify the stadium (not that it will take much convincing). Who takes this one? Shelton is currently in better form, but that may not be the most important factor tonight.

  • What he said: “We’re great friends. We played an incredible match at the Open last year, I think that's the best we actually both played. He got me the first couple of times,” Tiafoe said of the match-up. “We talk to each other outside of the game, we hang out outside of the game. I love that dude, but tomorrow obviously there’s no friends. We’re going to try to cut each other’s heads off, and the crowd’s going to love it. I’m going to love the competition, and I hope to get over the line.”
  • The record: Ben Shelton leads the head-to-head record over Frances Tiafoe, 2-1. Tiafoe won the most recent meeting at last year’s U.S. Open.

🎾 Programming note: I’ll be in Montreal for the start of the National Bank Open, so be sure to follow Court Theory on Instagram for BTS looks, player practices, and other special dispatches. And if you’ll be there, too. Hit reply to this email, and maybe we can meet up!