The theory of evoltion for Darwin Blanch?

Tipped for a great future because of his precocity, Darwin Blanch is still taking a bit of time to blossom at the top level. If you take away his two exhibition matches at the US Open, he’s on a run of 7 straight losses. And unfortunately, all those losses are pretty logical!

I watched his entire last match. It was in Winston-Salem against Hijikata. I was expecting a slightly more comfortable win for the Australian given the match-up, but the truth is that Blanch played well, probably “boosted” by his Wild Card.

Blanch’s game is quite straightforward: big serve, aggressive baseline play, good risk-taking. Either things go a bit too fast and he drowns you in winners, or you manage to neutralize him and he’ll rack up quite a few unforced errors. That’s why I thought Hijikata would beat him more easily. But there’s also the level of the day, of course. The level of solidity with which he can play his “risky” game. And that also depends on his motivation. And here, obviously, it’ll be at its highest.

Of course, it’s easy to picture a player like Fritz, an excellent counterpuncher, making him crack from his baseline, especially after comfortably holding his own service games, since he can then put pressure on return. But! Man, did Fritz completely choke against Nakashima in Cincinnati! And we know that in a first round, nerves can show (see 2022). But since then, he does seem to have set things straight anyway...