Donald Young causes upset and books final spot against Murray

Written by: Resendiz on 1st October 2011

Donald Young causes upset and books final spot against Murray

Donald Young of the USA returns the ball to Andy Murray of Great Britain in their men's final match at the ATP PTT Thailand Open tennis tournament in Bangkok, Thailand, on 02 October 2011. Murray defeated Young to win the final. EPA/RUNGROJ YONGRIT |

American Donald Young is in the final of the PTT Thailand Open in Bangkok after he had a surprise win over the number two seed Gael Monfils of France 4-6 7-6 (5) 7-6 (5) on Saturday.

This is Young’s career first ATP Tour final. Young was 1-4 down in the final set before he turned the match around. “Lately in the big matches I’ve won I’ve been down and I’ve had to come back. I’m just trying to fight and not give up and it pays dividends at the end of matches,” the World No. 55 said. He added, “I’m excited, I’m stoked, all the words that mean you’re happy to be in my first final. I’ve seen a lot of my peers make finals and I’m happy to be in my first one. It’s great to beat a Top 10 player of the calibre of Gael.”

Gael Monfils was very impressed with his semi-final opponent today, “Donald played very well. I had opportunities but I didn’t manage to play better than him in the key moments of the match.”

On Monday Donald Young will be ranked inside the Top 50 for the first time in his career. His opponent in the Bangkok final will be World No. 4 Andy Murray. The Brit has had a great couple of months with a win at the Queen’s tournament (d. Tsonga), a semi-final spot at Wimbledon (l. Nadal), a title in Cincinnati (d. Djokovic) and he finished off with reaching the semi-final at US Open and losing to Nadal.

The British number one fought hard against Frenchman Gilles Simon of France to earn a spot in tomorrow’s final. The Brit broke the Frenchman twice to win the first set. Murray then was broken twice by Simon who won the second set. The World No. 4 was too strong in the third set and finished it off with another two breaks of serve to win 6-2 3-6 6-2 in one hour and 53 minutes.

“It’s always tough playing Gilles, he’s a very good player. It was always going to be difficult. He’s probably going to finish the year in the Top 10 again. He doesn’t give you many matches. He makes you work hard for it. I was happy I managed to stay patient in the end,” Andy said.

Young and Murray have met twice and won one match each both meetings were in 2011. Young won in Indian Wells earlier in the year and Murray won the second meeting at the US Open just a couple of weeks ago. Murray is looking to win his third title of the year in Sunday’s final against Young.

Unseeded German team Michael Kohlmann and Alexander Waske has moved into the doubles final today. They overcame the No. 4 seeds Paul Hanley of Australia and Dick Norman of Belgium 6-4 7-6 (4) in the semi-finals.

Kohlmann and Waske will face top seeds Oliver Marach of Austria and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan in Sunday’s final.

SCHEDULE – SUNDAY, 2 OCTOBER, 2011

CENTRE COURT start 1:00 pm

[1] O Marach (AUT) / A Qureshi (PAK) vs M Kohlmann (GER) / A Waske (GER)

Not Before 3:00 pm

[1] A Murray (GBR) vs D Young (USA)