Darwin Blanch Earns A U.S. Open Wild Card With Kalamazoo Win… Two Years After Declining One!

By Randy Walker

@TennisPublisher

Two years after declining a U.S. Open wi;d card because he didn’t feel he deserved it, Darwin Blanch has now rightfully earned a U.S. Open wild card.

Blanch, the 17-year-old from Boca Raton, Florida, won the USTA National Boy’s 18s Championships in Kalamazoo, Michigan defeating Jack Satterfield of Tampa, Florida 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the final. The winner of this USTA national championship traditionally earns a U.S. Open main draw wild card.

Back in 2023, Blanch, then 15 years old, lost in the quarterfinals of the boy’s 18s event, but the USTA Player Development program was so high on his potential, that they awarded him a wild card into the U.S. Open qualifying event, which is normally accorded only to the event’s runner-up, not a losing quarterfinalist. After the wild card was publicly announced in a press release, Blanch, reportedly pushed by his coaches and mentors including former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero, politely declined the wild card with this team believing that he was not ready to compete yet at that high level of tennis.

After his U.S. Open reversal, Blanch received two high-profile wild cards in 2024 at the Miami Open and the Madrid Open where he lost in the first round to Tomas Machac and, famously, to Rafael Nadal in Madrid by a 6-1, 6-0 margin. Since then, Blanch has played primarily in Futures and Challenger events and is ranked No. 404 on the ATP computer.

In February 2022, Blanch actually made some tennis history when he became the second youngest player to earn an ATP ranking point when he defeated Gerald Planelles in the first round of the ITF World Tennis Tour “Futures” level tournament in Villena, Spain. At 14 years and five months, he was two months older than the Spaniard Nicolás Álvarez Varona (14 years and three months) when he scored an ATP point in 2015. He went on to win the USTA National Boys’ 16s Championships later in the year.

Blanch trains at the Juan Carlos Ferrero Academy in Alicante, Spain and often practices with French, Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion Carlos Alcaraz.