Logical...

Fritz as the No. 1 seed, and Cilic as a player who’s become dangerous again since the start of the season. 7/6 6/7 7/6?

So yeah, why not, but Cilic would still really have to keep playing at a seriously high level given how good a baseliner Fritz is. So one set decided in a tie-break, and the other with just one break?

Fritz had a real scare with his elbow yesterday against Korda, I almost thought he was going to stop, and then he pulled himself together and ended up narrowly beating a very good Seb Korda, being really fired up about getting the win. I saw him transcend himself like rarely to celebrate certain points. So, a mixed return overall. Beyond the injury, the level was good, especially on serve. Anyway, if his elbow hurts, we’ll see it quickly on the serve and forehand. On Cilic’s side, whom I now call Ockham’s razor (because of his powerful, skimming trajectories and his very pragmatic playing style, which is not unlike the philosophical principle of the same name), he’s not easy to break either. The guy is on cloud nine, really happy to be back at this stage of a competition, and he’s definitely not going to feel any inferiority complex facing Fritz given the career he’s had.

Their three previous meetings go back a bit, but they were all knife-edge battles, with three sets each time. Marin Cilic was playing at a very high level back then, but I think we’re almost back to that now. The low bounce in Dallas will narrow the gap a bit more in the rallies. If Fritz had come in undercooked, there was an opportunity, but now I see that the risk from his injury and Cilic’s unsettling level are being factored in. What’s left for us?