Baez bounces back or crashes

A real disappointment in Rio for Baez, who was defending his title nonetheless

500 points lost and now Baez is down to 52nd just as the Golden Swing is coming to an end, he’s virtually 60th if you remove the points from his final here, that could really hurt. I was about to put his loss last week into perspective by saying it was the pressure and also a good Faria, but now we’re in a similar situation: he’s defending points and playing a Garin I thought was excellent in the first round. Even if Baez has a great history at this tournament, we saw last week that it doesn’t mean much, especially when he puts pressure on himself, and to me that could be the case again. We’ll watch closely, but I’m immediately ruling out any bet on his ML if the odds are too short.

Once he’s into his match he’s supposed to be better than Garin, more consistent from the baseline and a bit more inspired offensively with the addition of his net game this season, which is working pretty well. But Garin plays with his heart, I saw some good old-school Garin again in the first round against the tricky JM Cerundolo! He was patient while still staying aggressive, and his backhand was really firing. He’s got nothing to lose here and he’s finding a good level of play again. I think he’s capable of taking his set and why not even the win, even if the road looks very long!