Paul, on a roll?

The crowd favorite is finally dominating a match head and shoulders above the rest, and it’s against Fritz! Is this what will now launch him towards the final?

And yeah, a big match full of Tommy Paul who beat Fritz hands down. Fritz was admittedly a bit burnt out, but Paul’s level has gone up a notch compared to his previous matches. He’s being fully backed by his home crowd, especially a group of young guys who went to the same college as him, I think. So he’s managed to turn the pressure of playing at home into motivation and performance, and now he seems pretty hard to stop on his way to the title. Today, he’ll be facing Learner Tien, who’s come through two nail-biter matches, sometimes looking in really bad shape. We’re used to that with him, you might say, but I watched him closely, and in each of those last two matches he looked spent to me. Probably a lack of match rhythm. Yesterday I bet against him despite his break in set 2 because right now he can’t sustain full intensity for an entire match. Could it be different today? Delray is a bit slower, there can be some wind, we’re on outdoor hard, and Tien usually doesn’t get his business done in two shots. He’ll probably come in with an aggressive game plan because he knows he can’t keep up the pace against Paul. That could put some pressure on Paul. But if Paul stays locked in, I think he’s got a very good chance to win.