👋 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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Today’s tennis mood: Hopeful with a touch of anxiety.

Let’s tennis!

Three Points

🎾 Day Five: Today is day five of the WTA Tour Finals in Riyadh, which wraps up round-robin play for the Serena Williams Group. The WTA has the full rundown on today’s action, with one notable difference: Ekaterina Alexandrova is the alternate in for Madison Keys, who is out with illness.

🎾 The return of Venus: When Venus Williams ended her season at the U.S. Open, she said she was done for the year because she doesn’t travel for tournaments anymore. That’s about to change because Queenus has accepted a wild card to the ASB Classic in Auckland in January. And that likely means she’s making a real effort to play all the majors in 2026, starting with the Australian Open.

🎾 Another kind of return: Sara Sorribes Tormo will return to professional tennis this month after a six-month break from the sport during which she was diagnosed with depression. The 29-year-old Spaniard, who was known for being battle-ready in singles and doubles, often wearing her opponents down in three-hour matches, said she had been depleted of energy for tennis and most other things.

  • What she said: “I couldn't even step onto a tennis court,” Sorribes Tormo said. “I’d wake up in the morning and think that the more hours I had until I could train, the better. I’d step onto the court and want to leave immediately. I’d go to training and not last more than ten minutes. I’d burst into tears in the middle of training. After I’d been out for a month, I came to play here with my mother and lasted three minutes; I had a panic attack and we had to leave.” She added: “It was killing me not to enjoy it, because I’ve always loved tennis and I’ve always played to try and improve. I lost that passion. I just wanted the hours to pass. It was like coming to clock in. I didn’t want to be there. I didn’t want to go to tournaments. That, combined with a lot of anxiety, made things very difficult.”
  • Next: Sorribes Tormo will return to pro tennis at the WTA 125 in Chile later this month.