👋 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: that Fonseca-de Minaur thriller, Emma Raducanu’s new coach and new results, Gael Monfils takes on Sebastian Korda, plus more in today’s tennis news.

Let’s tennis!

Four Points

🎾 Thrilla in Brazila: For two-and-a-half hours on Monday night, Alex de Minaur and Joao Fonseca battled on the stadium court at the Miami Open. And, once again, for Fonseca’s opponent, it felt like the match was taking place in Brazil. So much so that when de Minaur emerged victorious after a 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 scoreline, he wrote on the camera lens: Rio Open.

  • What he said: “Yeah, it was a hell of a battle,” De Minaur said after the match. “I knew coming in, I knew what to expect.” He added: “Not only is he an incredibly talented, dangerous, explosive player, but he’s playing with so much confidence at the moment and the crowd behind him. I knew I was going to be up against it, and it was going to take every single ounce of me, so I just put my head down and got to work. Very happy with it.”
  • And what he said: “I mean, Alex is an experienced guy,” Fonseca said in his post-match press conference. “He knows how to play in the circumstances, with the crowd against him. Yeah, in the important points I had chances. I had opportunity to close the doors for him, but he took the opportunities that he had. I served 2-1 on the third. I had some opportunity to close. He broke me and he started playing better.”
  • Fonseca’s takeaway: “I mean, playing with the top players, you kind of know where’s your level,” the world number 60 added. “I really see that I’m [on] the right way, I’m [on] the right path, playing some good matches against top, top players. There is where I want to be. Happy the way I played those matches.”

🎾 Another Raducanu coach: Just days after Emma Raducanu fired Vladimir Platenik, a new coach has stepped up to bat. A pair of them, actually. Jane O’Donoghue, Raducanu’s childhood mentor and former LTA coach, has returned to the camp, which is less of a surprise. But seemingly out of nowhere is Mark Petchey, a former coach of Andy Murray and current Tennis Channel commentator. What’s the arrangement? Who knows!

  • What she said: “This week I have some really good people around me who I trust and who I have fun with off the court as well, and that is extremely important,” Raducanu told Sky Sports after her straightforward win over Amanda Anisimova on Monday. “When I play my best I am definitely authentic, true to myself and creative. I feel when I am boxed into a regimented way then I am not able to express myself in the same way.”
  • The result: Raducanu has certainly looked more herself thus far in Miami. And she’s won four matches in a row for the first time since winning the U.S. Open in 2021.

🎾 And another one: Alexandra Eala, the Miami Open wild card from the Philippines who has made news for taking out back-to-back seeds Jelena Ostapenko and Madison Keys, has stepped over a third seed. On Monday, Paula Badosa withdrew from the tournament due to her ongoing lower back injury.

  • Up next: Eala has a truly no-pressure situation against Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. She’s guaranteed top 100 and nearly $200,000 in prize money (nearly half as much as she’s earned in her career thus far). Hopefully, she views the opportunity to let it all hang out and see where she stands against a top five opponent.

🎾 Just kidding!: Some players just can’t handle retirement. Count Alize Cornet among them. Cornet, who recently announced she would appear on the French edition of Traitors, came back with an even more shocking announcement that she’s returning to the tour with a wild card into Rouen next month. The 35-year-old, who has been retired for less than a year, is currently ranked 523.

  • What she said: “After 8 weeks of intense training (and 10 months of retirement 😂), here I am soon back on the courts 🤩!” Cornet posted on social media. “Even if it’s only for a couple of tournaments, the desire to play and the excitement of the competition are beautiful and very much there✊️. I’ve worked very hard to put all the odds on my side but I’ve had a great pleasure doing it. For the love of tennis, for the desire of this last thrill that I hope to share with you 💪.”