Dellien, did you get lost?

Our Bolivian clay court player decided to visit Cincinnati for the first time in his long career...

Dellien is coming off an absolute 6-2, 6-2 beatdown at the hands of Marozsan in Toronto; there's not much to say about that. Dellien was not able to have any impact on the match whatsoever, Marozsan dictating from start to finish. Opelka is coming off a decent run in Toronto with victories over Ofner and Machac. He then lost in his third match to a Tien who played well! I found some good moments from him, especially on serve (surprisingly), but I would say his rallying and return were quite poor (yes, I know they always are, but I'm comparing them to his own level).

First of all, we need to question Hugo Dellien's motivation and desire to be here. This is the first time in his long career that he shows up in Cincinnati; usually, he only attends the US Open. He is now getting older, and we have to be slightly pessimistic, with a small consideration that he might be here for an easy paycheck. He has avoided hardcourts and grass like the plague his entire career... To his credit, some of his matches on these surfaces have been at least "decently competitive". He is playing with absolute zero pressure, and with Opelka's return struggles, it would not be shocking if he manages to keep up with him at least somewhat, given his ability to hold his own in serve games... What gives me a little faith that he will not completely tank the match is that he had a pretty decent performance against Lehecka in Wimbledon, where he managed to win a set and force a tiebreak as a double-digit underdog. Yes, the match against Marozsan was worrying, but at least Opelka is not as good on return, and now Dellien at least has a (very short) match under his belt...