While the age for greatness in sports is decreasing day by day, young American tennis players are shining on the biggest stage. From Ben Shelton to Coco Gauff, these youngsters are carving a niche for themselves in the tennis world. Further, another young name that has recently cropped up is 16-year-old American sensation, Darwin Blanch, who will play Rafael Nadal at the Mutua Madrid Open.

Blanch, who has played regularly on the ITF Tour this year, is set to play the biggest game of his career in Madrid. He will be up against the ‘King of Clay’ and that too on his home soil. This drew a rather hilarious reaction from Blanch.

Darwin Blanch taken by surprise after being paired against Rafael Nadal

Recently, the draw for the ATP 1000 Mutua Madrid Open was released. While it had some interesting matchups, one particular encounter that caught the attention was between Nadal and Blanch. While Nadal has the experience of over two decades, Blanch is not even two decades old.

As a result, the American sensation took to social media to hilariously react after being drawn against Nadal. He said, “Guys I play Nadal wtf,” with a hand on his face indicating how shocked he was to see the draw. With an age gap of 21 years, it will be a battle between two generations in Madrid.

Blanch has just started to get going on the tennis tour and has played just one match on the ATP circuit. It was at the Miami Open, where he received a wildcard entry. Similarly, he received a wildcard entry in Madrid too, and has a gigantic test ahead. Meanwhile, Nadal has entered by virtue of his protected ranking and is just the second tournament on his comeback after the Barcelona Open. In addition to this, his fans have another thing to cheer about as he made a massive revelation recently.

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Nadal set to compete in the Laver Cup

Hours ago, the Laver Cup dropped a huge update by announcing that Rafael Nadal will head to Berlin for this year’s Laver Cup. He joins the team as Bjorn Borg’s ‘captain picks.’ While he was absent from the tournament last year, Nadal will make a comeback here after last featuring with Roger Federer in 2022 for the Swiss player’s last game ever.

Revealing his excitement to play in this event, Nadal said, “I am very happy to be playing Laver Cup in Berlin for Team Europe. I have some really special memories from my Laver Cup experiences, including all the emotions from London two years ago playing alongside Roger for the last time.”

However, before that, he’ll have his task cut out at the Madrid Open. Nadal will have to pull up his socks if he’s to dig deep in the tournament. It’ll be interesting to see if Nadal can get back to winning ways on his home soil.