👋 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

🎾 Something familiar: Naomi Osaka saved two match points on her way to defeating 13th seed Liudmila Samsonova, 4-6, 7-6, 6-3, on Wednesday afternoon. It was the first match under her new coach Tomasz Wiktorowski, logging a win to kick off the relationship.

  • What she said: “She definitely came out really hard, and, for me, I was definitely overwhelmed, and I didn’t know if I should also be hitting winners,” Osaka said during her on-court interview. “But after a while, I just tried to keep the ball in the court.”
  • Yes, but: It’s true that Samsonova had 34 winners compared to Osaka’s 26, and that Osaka kept the unforced error count in her favor (16 to Samsonova’s 26). But it was vintage Osaka on display in the last set-and-a-half of this match: huge serving, repeatable patterns, and winners from all parts of the court. Something reconnected to the Osaka of 2019-2020.
  • Next: Osaka faces Jelena Ostapenko in the third round.

🎾 Full circle: Eugenie Bouchard, the Canadian who reached the 2014 Wimbledon final (plus the semis of the Australian Open and Roland-Garros that same year) and a career-high ranking of five in the world, ended her career before a home crowd in Montreal on Wednesday after losing to Belinda Bencic in three competitive sets.

  • What she said: “I think it’s so special to play my last match here in Montreal on this court in front of you guys,” Bouchard told the crowd during an on-court ceremony. “I remember being a little kid sitting in these stands, hoping and dreaming that I can play on this court one day. … It feels like such a full circle moment to finish my career here.”
  • Noteworthy: The look on Bouchard’s face from the time the match was over until she stepped off the court was of somebody who wasn’t sure they had made the right decision — or, at the very least, she had a conflicted look. Maybe that’s how everyone feels as they end their careers. Or, maybe she will change her mind. She wouldn’t be the first.

🎾 Tsitsipops is back: Stefanos Tsitsipas has once again reappointed his father, Apostolos, as his coach. The newest reconciliation came this week after the former world number three parted ways with Goran Ivanisevic, following some critical statements Ivanisevic made about Tsitsipas after Wimbledon.

  • What he said: “Some journeys have a way of circling back to where they began,” Tsitsipas posted on social media. “After some time apart, I’ve reunited with the person who first believed in me – my father.” He added: “Sometimes, coming home is the boldest step forward.”
  • The timing: That post came on the heels of a rough loss to Australia’s Chris O’Connell — a player nearly 50 spots below Tsitsipas in the rankings.

And, that’s game.

On The Radar

More tennis matches we’re monitoring today:

Montreal - WTA 1000 (Hard)

  • Marta Kostyuk vs. Daria Kasatkina (3rd round)
  • Coco Gauff vs. Veronika Kudermetova (3rd round)
  • Victoria Mboko vs. Marie Bouzkova (3rd round)
  • Mirra Andreeva vs. McCartney Kessler (3rd round)
  • Jessica Bouzas Maneiro vs. Aoi Ito (3rd round)
  • Dayana Yastremska vs. Emma Navarro (3rd round)

Toronto - ATP 1000 (Hard)

  • Lorenzo Musetti vs. Alex Michelsen (3rd round)
  • Nuno Borges vs. Casper Ruud (3rd round)
  • Matteo Arnaldi vs. Alexander Zverev (3rd round)
  • Daniil Medvedev vs. Alexei Popyrin (3rd round)
  • Karen Khachanov vs. Emilio Nava (3rd round)
  • Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs. Francisco Cerundolo (3rd round)
  • Learner Tien vs. Reilly Opelka (3rd round)
  • Alexandre Muller vs. Holger Rune (3rd round)

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

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