Another Washington rematch!

Safe to say we have two players in great form...

The Americans are making great use of this phase of the season when they get to play at home. Just look at the two players competing in this match. Also, Shelton and now also Paul and Tiafoe. Nakashima has played a lot of matches and faced another in-form player in Borges... we were on the lookout for some fatigue or lack of focus, but instead he roleplayed as Isner on serve with an 8.9 serve rating and 27 aces. Not only that, but he managed 7 unreturned serves (out of 8 total) while being 15-40 down twice in the third set; talk about clutch. While he definitely deserved to win his match, I did find him a little bit slow at times when having to run to the corners or just side to side (I know he is usually not that fast, but it looked rather labored). However, it never really got exposed due to the quality of his serve and Borges' passiveness in the third set.

Fritz has been almost flawless, hasn't he? His only loss is that first-round exit against Tirante in Montreal, where he was absolutely cooked. Apart from that, he has been so incredibly solid and strong, even against multiple players in good form (Jodar, Michelsen and Merida). While we mustn't overvalue potential fatigue, I really do think it's worth mentioning still. Nakashima has played a lot: semifinal in Washington, final in Montreal, and now a quarterfinal here. Fritz has been able to win a lot of his matches in rather easy straight sets, which also helps. And yeah, he only had a short first round in Montreal. While we can expect this match to be serve-dominant, it could still be important! I don't really like this matchup for Nakashima... Fritz has similar qualities to Nakashima (serve and baseline play, both lacking natural athleticism and net skills), he just does most things a little bit better - especially protecting his second serve.

In the end, I think this rematch could end up a little bit in the way that Jodar/Tabilo did (well not that big of a blowout). We had a rather competitive and tight first meeting, but I don't think the circumstances and timing increase Nakashima's chances of having more success this time.