Can Rublev stay calm this time?

Or will his temperament get him in trouble again...?

So yes, they just faced. Rublev had his chances and set points in the first set, but after struggling to convert them, he got broken instead and lost the set. After that, it felt like he gave up any sort of tactic and just started to blast the ball harder out of anger, which led to a quick second set in favour of Tien! Since that match, he had a decent run in Toronto, where I found him quite good vs Fokina and also decent against a very good Fritz. Tien himself also had a decent run in Toronto, beating some attacking players, including Colton Smith, Shapovalov, and Opelka, before a very poor match against his friend Michelsen. As displayed in their meeting in Washington, Tien can be a tricky matchup for Rublev! With his ability to absorb pace and construct the points nicely (he was able to push Rublev quite far out on his BH, which made it hard for Rublev to impose himself and attack). So yes, one-dimensional attacking baseliners fit Tien quite nicely.

Now, what can Rublev do to change the outcome of this match? It's essential for him to remain calm (easier said than done) and focus on playing with more controlled aggression, rather than just going all-out attacking tennis. Still, it needs to be aggressive enough not to cede control to Tien, so he must find the right balance. Perhaps we will see him trying to approach the net a bit more to finish points; he has talked about working on this part of his game more. We saw that despite this matchup being tricky for Rublev, he had his chances in the first set, and I would be surprised if he gives up the same way this time. In his recent interviews, he has also emphasized the importance of staying calm, regardless of the situation or conditions. So if we want to believe him, we should expect a big fight from Rublev this time! It would not be shocking for me if Rublev starts strong, cause he is the one who has the ability to make the adjustments before Tien can adjust to Rublev's adjustments...