Messages from world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz fuel Blanch's Wimbledon bid
American Darwin Blanch has revealed that his bid for silverware at the Junior Championships, Wimbledon is being fuelled by good luck messages from none other than world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz.
Power-hitting left-hander Blanch was staring down the barrel of defeat against home favourite Viktor Frydrych before a second-set revival laid the foundations for the 15-year-old to prevail 6-7 (6) 6-3 6-3.
Blanch, who reached the semi-finals at last month’s Roland Garros Junior Championships, will now take his place in the third round where he will face Italy’s Lorenzo Sciahbasi.
Watching on today was former world No.1 and 2003 Roland Garros champion Juan Carlos Ferrero, whose academy in Villena is the training base for both Alcaraz and Florida-born Blanch.
Blanch is a regular training partner of Alcaraz and has seemingly struck up quite a connection with the 2022 US Open champion, who will draw swords with world No. 6 Holger Rune tomorrow in the men’s quarter-finals. That relationship has stretched to SW19.
“It is crazy to be able to train with someone like Carlos Alcaraz,” Blanch tells itftennis.com. “I am really blessed because it is not normal to regularly train with the world No. 1 and it really helps. He gives me feedback which I really take into my mind.
“Something that I struggle with, and I copy Alcaraz on, is routines. It is something that he does really well and it’s something I am working on after each point. After every point I look at what he is doing and try to make myself do that. I have got better as a result.
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"I have talked to him a bunch of times this tournament and those chats really motivate me. He's been saying, 'keep going, good job' – he is a really nice guy. We are pretty good friends, have a nice connection and I look up to him massively.
“It is also a huge honour to have Juan Carlos [Ferrero] in my box. It is really nice that he watches my matches and he gives me his feedback which, coming from a player that reached the levels he did, really helps.
“I just really trust both of them and, as I say, it is very rare that you get advice from world No. 1s and it is a big advantage to have people like this around you.”
Junior world No. 11 Blanch has significant pedigree having claimed the biggest singles title of his career at J300 Porto Alegre in March, while he continues to gain exposure within the professional ranks on the ITF World Tennis Tour.
Grass, however, so often threatens to be the great leveller and Blanch only played his first competitive match on the surface at last week’s J300 Roehampton, although all the evidence suggests he is finding his feet.
“This is my second tournament on grass,” said Blanch. “Last week I was struggling and trying to find rhythm, but we got to training, worked on a lot of things and it’s definitely getting better.
“There were some really tight moments today and I was on the brink – he had me. I knew I had to keep going because he had to eventually break down because he was serving so well, and I felt he couldn’t serve like that the entire match. I am really pleased.”
A full list of results from the 2023 Junior Championships, Wimbledon is available here.