👋 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.

On tap today, we’ve got: Alexandra Eala magical run, the toll of Taylor Fritz’s win, Stan Wawrinka turns 40, Novak Djokovic takes on Grigor Dimitrov, Jakub Mensik faces Taylor Fritz, plus more tennis news today.

Let’s tennis!

Three Points

🎾 It’s not over, it’s just getting started: Alexandra Eala’s incredible run at the Miami Open came to a close in another incredible battle Thursday night (errrr...Friday morning) after the young Filipina fell to Jessica Pegula in three close sets, 7-6, 5-7, 6-3. But, by the crowd’s reaction to Eala’s two weeks in Miami, you could have easily believed she had won that match. In a way, she did. The 19-year-old earned more than $330,000 (almost as much as she’s pulled in her entire career). And she’ll jump up in the rankings from 140 to approximately 75 on Monday, which solidifies main draw entry to the majors this year — and that comes with a guaranteed six-figure payout at each of those events.

  • What she said: “To have a week like this, the stars need to align and they did this week, and hopefully I can keep that up — that is my goal now, to keep this up,” Eala said.
  • And what she said: “She’s really good. She’s a really good tennis player, goes for her shots, takes the ball early, competes really well, she’s beaten a lot of top players this week,” Pegula said after winning the match.“I don’t think she needs me to tell her that she’s a great player, that we’re not going to see enough of her. We definitely are, and she proved that tonight.”

🎾 Missing your chances: Taylor Fritz may have won his quarterfinal match against Matteo Berrettini on Thursday night, but it sure did take an unnecessary journey. The 27-year-old American squandered six match points in the second set — and once Berrettini had one set point, he took it in a tiebreak. It took another 7-5 set before Fritz could close it out, leaving his record against the Italian a perfect 5-0.

  • What’s next: With no more days off to recover, Fritz is back in action in the first match of the night session against Jakub Mensik, who was on court six hours earlier and about half as long.

🎾 Happy Birthday, Stanimal!: It’s the big four-oh for Stan Wawrinka today. And how will he be celebrating? By taking court in the quarterfinals of a 125 ATP Challenger, of course. He takes on top seed Luciano Darderi in Naples following yesterday’s win over Borna Coric, who was on a three-title winning streak. What better way to celebrate Wawrinka’s 40th than to watch him rip 40 backhand winners?