It will be a tale of two generations when Rafael Nadal plays his first-round match at the Mutua Madrid Open on Thursday. His opponent is 21 years his junior — 16-year-old American Darwin Blanch.
This Masters 1000 tournament is owned by IMG and Blanch is an IMG client, which explains why he was given a main-draw wild card. The story was the same in Miami, where Blanch drew an in-form Tomas Machac in the opening round and lost 6-4, 6-2. That marked the teenager’s first-ever appearance on the main tour.
Blanch then took his talents to the red clay of Spain–an expected decision since he has spent lots of time training at the Juan Carlos Ferrero Tennis Academy, specifically with Carlos Alcaraz. He lost to one of his brothers, Dali, in round two of a Futures tournament before reaching the semifinals of his next Futures event a couple of weeks ago. Blanch comes into his second Masters 1000 appearance ranked No. 1,028 in the world.
“Guys, I play Nadal, wtf,” the left-hander wrote on Snapchat following Monday’s draw ceremony.
As for Nadal, this is his third official tournament of the season and second of the clay-court swing. The Spaniard returned from a three-month absence last week in Barcelona, where he took care of Flavio Cobolli before falling to Alex de Minaur. It was a decent but unspectacular comeback for Nadal, who looked good from the baseline but wasn’t serving anywhere close to 100 percent.
Improvement should be expected with a couple of matches under his belt. Even if Nadal stays at the same level, however, he will almost certainly be too good for an inexperienced opponent who will simply be enjoying the moment.
Pick: Nadal in 2
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