Alexander Zverev has some good memories of the Cincinnati Masters and he'll try to create some more against Grigor Dimitrov.
For a very long time, Alexander Zverev was winless at the Cincinnati Masters. It was a running joke among the fans so much so that Zverev famously joked about it as well. In fact, it was only in his 8th appearance (2021) that he won his first match at the event.
Funnily enough, he would win the event that year which was a major surprise for all including him. He's back this year after missing last year so let's see what he can do. The draw gave him Grigor Dimitrov, a very tricky player who has quietly had one of his better years.
Head-to-head:
Zverev and Dimitrov played a handful of times with the German largely dominating the matchup. He leads 4-1 with one match coming earlier this year. It was on clay at Roland Garros and it was a comfortable win for the German.
The only match Dimitrov won was a long time ago in Basel (2014). They only played once outdoors on hard courts and Zverev won that one.
Prediction:
So what will happen here? Well, Zverev just had a really poor effort in Toronto where he was pulverized by Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. He seemed pretty comfortable in the first round against Tallon Griekspoor and more generally was in good form after winning Hamburg recently but it didn't matter.
Dimitrov had a solid outing in Washington making his way to the semi-final but then skipped over Toronto for some reason. It's not clear whether he has an injury but let's assume that he doesn't. He does have the game to trouble Zverev but he rarely has. Why?
It's a combination of playstyles mostly as Zverev does really well to absorb any kind of power from his opponents completely walling them. Combined with a good serve it's a tough thing to overcome. So the win condition for Zverev will be how well he handles Dimitrov in rallies and how well he serves.
Prediction: Alexander Zverev to win in straight sets.
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