Where did this version of Baez come from?

After a tough first round, he absolutely destroyed De Jong in just about an hour...

From the start of the match, everything just worked. Even his serving was really strong... and the backhand was on fire. Combining that with his usually good returning, movement, and forehand, he was quite frankly unplayable for someone like De Jong. As for Rublev, it was the usual kind of match we are used to seeing from him in the first rounds. Rublev made it a bit too hard for himself, throwing away multiple matchpoints in the second-set tiebreaker with some really poor errors, but he managed to reset well and play well in the third set. Despite failing to break Pellegrino on slow clay for something like 13-14 consecutive games, I found him quite decent today. His backhand and net game were working well, even if his forehand was perhaps a little bit too passive. Pellegrino was serving quite well and also really "went after" his forehands, but Rublev's returning was nowhere good enough. He did mention in the post-match interview that his form has not been great and that he has not played a lot of tennis in the last few weeks, since getting eliminated from Wimbledon. Therefore, maybe we can give him a bit of benefit of the doubt, since it was his first round.

Actually, Rublev and Baez faced each other here in Båstad, in the semifinals, in 2022. I remember that match; Baez won it rather easily, being far more proactive, while Rublev was quite poor! If you look at their playstyles, Rublev is an Attacking Baseliner, and Baez is actually a Solid Baseliner / Counter Puncher. However, when Baez is playing with this kind of confidence, he is the one who is in charge of points, just putting relentless pressure over and over with a lot of intensity.