Deerfield Beach’s Blanch rolls into Junior Orange Bowl tennis boys’ 14s final

The Blanch gang is quickly becoming the Partridge Family of the tennis world, except their stringed instrument of choice is a tennis racket.

On Monday morning, third-seeded Darwin Blanch, a native of Deerfield Beach now living in Orlando to train part-time at the USTA National Campus, drummed unseeded Valentin Garay of Argentina, 6-2, 6-4 in a semifinal of the Boys’ 14s in the Junior Orange Bowl International Championships on the hard courts of the Biltmore Tennis Center.

Blanch, 14, who won the USTA National Clay Courts in July, will play Colombian Alejandro Arcila, the fifth seed, who outlasted No. 6 Calvin Baieri of Naples 6-1, 4-6, 6-2, in Tuesday’s 8 a.m. final.

“I’ve had some really bad streaks in the [Junior and Senior] Orange Bowl,” Blanch said of four early exits in the 12s and OB 16s, including earlier this month in Plantation. “No way was I going to lose in the first round again, and it feels really good to make the final.”

Blanch’s 18-year-old brother Dali was on hand to support “little” bro. Blanch is 6-feet tall, while his two older brothers are 6-2. Blanch’s best result in the Orange Bowl 16s was the final in 2018, is ranked 904 on the ATP, and recently made the semis of an ITF $15,000 in Cancun. He also made the quarterfinals of the National Hard Courts last summer.

Their older brother Ulises, 23, is ranked 249th on the pro tour and at one point was ranked No. 2 in the ITF world junior rankings with a win over a young Stefano Tsitsipas (4th in the world). Ulises has made it into the main draw of a major, losing a tough five-setter to then-ranked Cristian Garin in the 2020 US Open.

Even 17-year-old sister Krystal, who recently played the OB 18s, has an ITF ranking of 86.

“The goal is for the four of us to be successful [in tennis],” said Darwin Blanch, who also lived in Argentina where he often practiced with Arcila, 14, so they know each other’s game.

Arcila, who is from Medellin but trains part time in the Club Med Tennis Academy in Port St. Lucie with renowned coach Gabe Jaramillo, reached the finals of the Junior OB 12s.

The tournament organizers decided to play the semifinals and finals of the Boys’ 12s on the clay courts at Salvadore Park due to the threat of rain on Tuesday. No problem for Slovenia’s Svit Suljic, the third seed, whose all-court attack proved too much for Colombian baseliner No. 9 Juan Miguel Bolivar in a 6-3, 6-0 victory. He’s the first boy from Slovenia to win the 60-year-old Junior Orange Bowl.

In his early semifinal, Suljic struggled to a three-set win over fifth-seeded Jordan Lee of Orlando. Bolivar reached the final after downing No. 8 Jerrid Gaines Jr. of Margate, 6-2, 6-4. Jerrid Gaines Sr.. who played cornerback at Miami of Ohio before a stint on the Cincinnati Bengals practice squad, is his son’s fitness coach.

“I love [watching him],” the elder Gaines said. “I tell him just like a safety, you have to have speed, agility, power and endurance.”

Gaines rolled past Lee, his regular doubles partner, 6-4, 6-0 for third place.

Top-seeded Iva Jovic breezed through a 6-3, 6-3 victory over ninth-seeded Emma Dong of Vancouver in the first Girls’ 14s semifinal. Jovic, of Torrance, California, hasn’t given up more than three games in any set of her six wins this week.

Fourth-seeded Shannon Lam made it an all-American final by ending Rositsa Dencheva’s Florida run of 13 consecutive match victories with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 triumph to set up an 8 a.m. final between two 2021 Easter Bowl champions.

This story was originally published December 20, 2021 at 10:28 PM.