👋 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: Novak Djokovic raises some red flags, Carlos Alcaraz is caught in a cycle, a day of returns in Madrid, Holger Rune takes on Flavio Cobolli, plus more in today’s tennis news.
Let’s tennis!
Three Points
🎾 What did you say about this sport?: Is Djokovic over it? It might seem that way after the man who holds all the records was caught dropping a series of f-bombs on the practice court in Madrid. During a session this week in Madrid with coach Andy Murray, Djokovic can be heard muttering in Serbian: “F*** this sport. F*** tennis. F*** everything.” Of course, the expletives aren’t the problem. This is more about his state of mind after a less-than-stellar start to the clay season. And it’s quite a juxtaposition to his quote in the What They Said section below.
🎾 The injury report: Paula Badosa has pulled out of yet another tournament after it starts, but before she plays a match — this time on home soil. Karolina Muchova has also withdrawn from Madrid with an undisclosed illness. Those two join Anhelina Kalinina and four men, most notably Carlos Alcaraz, in withdrawing from the tournament.
- Back in action: Today’s matches bring back into action some players worth keeping an eye on after some recent pauses: Taylor Fritz, Elena Rybakina, Qinwen Zheng, Daria Kasatkina, Ons Jabeur, Amanda Anisimova, Hubert Hurkacz, and Sofia Kenin.
🎾 One note: After watching the first episode of the Carlos Alcaraz miniseries on Netflix, one thing stands out more than anything else: déjà vu. Here we are exactly one year later, and Alcaraz is facing the same set of injury issues on home turf that he struggled with a year ago. Granted, the injuries are different. But the questions over his fitness, the methods of training, whether or not he’s over-training, and if he has the mental strength to “enjoy the suffering” remain the same.
