Not at all the match we were expecting!

It was supposed to be Martinez/Baez and we end up with Faria/Dzumhur, what is this?

The two-time defending champion Baez completely blew it. He sprayed the court like rarely before and was super nervous about defending his points. You can give Faria some credit too for getting the job done, but it’s not like the Portuguese put in some huge performance, quite the opposite, the level was pretty poor. That said, it’s the second time Faria ends up as a Lucky Loser in Rio and the second time he grabs his chance. He says he loves this tournament, there were a few Portuguese fans really pushing for him so yeah, he’s having a blast.

Dzumhur is a bit of a surprise too, even if Martinez wasn’t as big a favorite as Baez. This time we actually got a great match starting from the second set. In the first one, Dzumhur played terribly and looked set to continue his bad streak. He found his level again just in time, and from that moment on we had a real high-level match on both sides. 40 winners for Dzumhur, 38 for Martinez, they were really playing at a crazy level. Dzumhur is excellent in this kind of setup, he’s a crafty little scrapper who counterpunches brilliantly down the line in particular.

I’m going to be tough on Faria, but he came up against a terrible Baez, whereas Dzumhur actually played really well. If Dzumhur shows the same level tomorrow, then he has a very good chance of going through.