A decent chance for Grigor?

He showed us some signs of life at Wimbledon...

It had been quite a rough period for Dimitrov pre-Wimbledon, with all the injuries. At least being able to win four matches at Wimbledon should have provided him with some kind of confidence boost that he can still perform at a good level! I watched him in Båstad after that, where he had a tough battle against Svrcina in the first before having no gas left in the tank whatsoever against Borges in the second match. I don't think we need to pay too much attention to the Båstad performance. Something that is for certain is that Grigor kind of needs the right conditions to play an attacking game right now, so a faster surface. In this regard, Cincinnati should suit him very nicely! My main concern straight away would be the humidity; we saw yesterday just how brutal it was - even in matches that did not last that long! We also have to keep in mind that he pulled out of Los Cabos with a leg injury.

As for Baez, I think we have seen the same thing from him ever since Båstad. He tends to start the matches with a lot of intensity and aggression, which can catch players a bit off-guard! However, he often has issues maintaining that level throughout the match, as we saw against Bergs in Montreal. Also, when he faces players who are also aggressive and have more power, his playstyle becomes very ineffective (his matches against Rublev in Båstad and Hanfmann in Kitzbühel are great examples).

Dimitrov definitely has the tools to beat players like Baez; it used to be his speciality, in fact. My main concerns for him are a slow start against Baez's intensity, along with the weather. If he gets off to a slow start and has to make a comeback from a set down, it becomes a bit more troublesome. Apart from that, I really like the matchup for him. His game translates much better to the court conditions, as long as he can find it in time and not have too many dips - he still has not played a lot of matches this year for rhythm...