👋 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
🎾 Venus is headed to the desert: On Wednesday, Indian Wells tournament organizers announced wild cards for the event next month. Among them was Venus Williams, the 44-year-old who told us she would never inform us of her retirement so it’s always a bit of a question as to whether or not we’ll see her again. Cue all the typical comments about how she should get off the tour and stop taking wild cards. Others include Petra Kvitova, Joao Fonseca, and Learner Tien.
🎾 Another data point on Rybakina-Vukov: On the newest episode of her podcast, Rennae Stubbs said Stefano Vukov attempted to silence his critics with legal action after she made it clear to the WTA that Vukov was a problematic coach on tour. “He came after me and wanted to sue me, okay, for saying things about him that were true, that have been now investigated for years are now true,” the six-time Grand Slam doubles champion said. “I have seen him yelling at her, I could have been one of those witnesses. And I probably was one of those witnesses because they interviewed me years ago about him because I made comments on this podcast years ago about him.”
🎾 Tennis is still growing: For the fifth straight year, tennis participation has grown, according to the USTA. It puts the organization’s goal of reaching 35 million participants by 2035 within reach. Along with the findings, the USTA also announced more than $10 million in grants and other funding to refurbish and build tennis courts across the country — a 10x increase over last year’s commitment.
