The double

Blanch is Shelton's double, visually and tennis-wise.

Very nice victory for Blanch yesterday against a pale Coric. The young American played with his balls on the important points, he serves particularly well and doesn't hesitate to go for it frankly. His backhand isn't crazy but he forces himself to stay solid on that side and as soon as he can take control of the game with his forehand it's immediately easier. He has a pretty enormous weight to the ball, there's a lot of spin and you can feel the potential. For his second round he will face our French Muller who has been struggling for some time now. Muller has only won two matches since Roland-Garros, a victory against Zhukayev and another against Kecmanovic (who is also struggling), and that's it. In Cincinnati he took a set from Brooksby but could/should have lost in two short sets, he's doing everything a little less well than before and the extreme conditions are not easy for him to manage either. On the other hand, he is often good in pre-Grand Slam tournaments, like Hamburg this season for example. He has more experience than Blanch and must use his game intelligence to find solutions, but that already means raising his own level of play.