Twentieth and final participation in the Madrid Open for Nadal who debuts with the 16-year-old Darwin Blanch: there is a 21 year and 117 day difference between the two, the match in the history of the Masters 1000 with the highest age gap. The match is live at 5pm on Sky Sport and streaming on NOW
21 years, 117 days. In between, three Slams that became 22, three Roland Garros that became fourteen. Although youth often means naive recklessness, when the class of 2007 Darwin Blanch16 years old and with a head full of curls and secret dreams, will step on the “magical” land of Madrid, entering the Manolo Santana field, he will already know that behind him, a roar will rise, thunderous, frightening, legendary, ready to go to war alongside “king” Rafa Nadalto the farewell waltz in the Caja Magica.
Nadal, almost 38 years old, all visible on his tired shoulders and feet now massacred by fatigue, however, will almost think that, after a career spent being the “child prodigy” par excellencehe will embody the suggestion of being a walking monument. He will think about it as he watches the sixteen-year-old Darwin parade in front of him and perhaps he will especially feel like he is reliving the day when, at Wimbledon, in 2006, he was the impertinent twenty-year-old who had defeated an increasingly close Andre Agassi (coincidentally, an American). upon withdrawal.
Talking about tactics and statistics to present the match between Nadal and Blanch is a useless exercise: Rafa will play his 1294th match at ATP level. The young Darwin just the second, after the one lost in Miami a couple of months ago against Tomas Machac. Rafa has won 92 ATP titles. Darwin would probably be satisfied with himself if he managed to end his career with a quarter of this number of awards. Rafa has won 22 Slams, Darwin at the moment, like all sixteen-year-olds, dreams of one Major at a time.
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A little Rafa, a little Shelton: who is Blanch
Blanch, Left-handed like Nadal and with features that are a bit reminiscent of those of another “star in the making” on the ATP circuit like Ben Shelton, he’s on the board thanks to a wild card. No strangeness: the American talent is followed by the IMG agency, which, in addition to selecting and keeping an eye on the best tennis prospects of the future, is among the organizers of the Masters 1000 in Madrid.
And so, the suggestion of facing a legend soon turned into a welcome twist of fate. A destiny that the sixteen-year-old Darwin has clear from his surname: the last of four brothers, he could only grow up with a racket in his hand. Ulises, the eldest, was at maximum number 236 in the ATP rankings. Good placement in an absolute sense, but not for those who want to make a living from tennis. Dali and Krystal, however, stopped even earlier, on the threshold of a junior experience that never really became something more in adulthood.
Darwin, however, already seems to have a different rhythm. Ready, go: the first boom arrived at the end of 2023, with the top ten in the junior rankingsobtained thanks to the semi-finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon and which meant the right to take advantage of the Next Gen Accelerator Programme, the program that reserves the best Next Gen on the circuit the possibility of using a similar “protected ranking” to guarantee a place in eight Challenger scoreboards of your choice.
The move to Spain in the shadow of Alcaraz
A year earlier, baby Blanch had decided to abandon the federal center in Orlando and the prospects of a career in stars and stripes university tennis to move to Alicante, to train in Juan Carlos Ferrero’s academyand sometimes also offering himself as a sparring partner of Carlos Alcaraz, someone who knows well what it means to appear on the ATP circuit with the stigmata of a child prodigy. As well as someone who knows well what it means to face Nadal in the Caja Magica: in 2021 a Carlitos who turned 18 that very day found himself facing Rafa in the second round in Madrid. Not even time to play a game and, due to the tension, he ended up rolling in the red clay, with a slightly bruised ankle. The match was a “no show”: 6-1, 6-2 for Nadal. A year later the two met in the quarter-finals and the winner was Alcaraz, who did well to shake off a further ankle scare from his mind.
Nadal’s doubts about Paris
It is likely that the challenge between Nadal and Blanch will remain unique, with the Spaniard increasingly doubtful about his future, so much so that he contradicts himself in the approach to Roland Garros, a Slam in which the intention would be to die, but only if his physique allows him to have an acceptable standard of competitiveness.
Yet, facing Nadal is always scary: the moment sixteen-year-old Darwin learned what the Madrid draw had in store for him, he entrusted his thoughts to Snapchat, letting himself go with a “WTF” which is better not translated. For some, perhaps, the reaction will have brought back memories of the time Nadal tried to be active on TikTok, just uploading a video to his profile and then condemning the account to silent oblivion. Far from silent, however, will be the last dance in the Caja Magica. And who knows whether, against the logic imposed by an increasingly physical tennis, experience will be able to prevail over youth. And the last dance doesn’t end up becoming the penultimate.
Nadal Blanch, where to watch the ATP Madrid match
The match between Rafael Nadaland Darwin Blanchvalid for the first round of the Masters 1000 in Madrid, is scheduled Thursday 25 April, no earlier than 5pm, on the Manolo Santana Stadium of the Caja Magica in Madrid. The meeting will be live on Sky Sport Uno and streaming on NOW with commentary by Fabio Tavelli and commentary by Raffaella Reggi.
