The gem confirms it?

We see Blanch every season in tournaments where he grabs his usual little WC, but this season he looks like he’s in a position to win!

Blanch is very young, we saw him getting WCs as early as 16 and usually that doesn’t lie, except he’s struggling a bit to really break through (we’re biased by Alcaraz/Fonseca etc.), but I have to say that every time I see him play again I feel like he’s improved a ton. Last week he beat Atmane in a challenger and served for the match against Harris, just huge and deserved given how he played. His serve is already super hard to return (he’s left‑handed), 16 aces against Atmane and 11 against Harris. Nice aggression on second‑serve returns, he’s often standing with both feet inside the court and goes for it. Still room for improvement from the baseline but he’s got fire in his arm and works hard, the conditions in Miami make him a threat! In 2024 here he took a logical beatdown from Machac and last year he beat Daniel before losing in the deciding tiebreak to Tseng, he’s getting closer! You can’t really say he’s got a bad draw this year either…

Struff is hard to break in this kind of conditions but the German has been disappointing since the start of the season, I’ve seen a few glimpses of a comeback in form in some decent defeats but then he follows up with ridiculous matches, it’s almost impossible to back him as a favorite until he’s put together one or two good matches, and here he’ll clearly be the fav. He’s more experienced, serves rockets and plays super aggressive too, on paper he can grab Blanch by the throat and put insane pressure on him, but in reality he can also be nonexistent on return and get caught out by the youngster…

The value doesn’t seem to be on Struff at first glance, but maybe the odds are already moving too much in that direction?