👋 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.
Let’s tennis!
Three Points
🎾 All aboard the struggle bus: For the last few weeks, the top ten on both the ATP and WTA tours have been struggling — and badly. Citing fatigue, lack of motivation, terrible tour schedules, off-court drama, illness, and...ahem...a doping suspension, there doesn’t seem to be a single player in the top ten among the men or the women performing up to par. And it’s only February. What does that hold for the rest of the season as it ramps up with the Sunshine Double less than two weeks away? Magic 8 Ball says: “Outlook not so good.”
🎾 Iga doubles down: After Iga Swiatek lost to Mirra Andreeva in two convincing sets, 6-3, 6-3, she made it clear the tour schedule is what did her in. “Honestly, I’m not that direct usually, but I would blame this performance on the lack of practice before because I didn't have time.” She added: “Again, like, we need to switch continents, we need to switch surfaces, we need to switch the balls. Yeah, it’s not easy.” It’s a familiar refrain from the world number two (and much of top pros on the ATP and WTA tours). So far, the tournament seems to be getting more complicated — not less.
🎾 Almost pulled a muscle patting ourselves on the back: Not to toot our own horn, but did we call that Berrettini-Draper match or what?!? The nearly two-and-a-half match was filled with some of their best recent tennis. As one Court Theory reader put it, “This is a banger. You picked a good one.” Draper’s win over Berrettini 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 moves him into the semifinals today against an equally hot Jiri Lehecka. (Ordinarily, the highlights would be linked here. But somebody at ATP Media has been falling asleep behind the wheel lately.)
