Donald Young bests James Blake and looks for return to top form – Matt Cronin

Written by: Staff on 11th January 2013

Donald Young bests James Blake and looks for return to top form - Matt Cronin |

By Matt Cronin

When Donald Young became the youngest male to win the Australian Open junior championships at age 15, six months in 2005 and became the youngest player ever to reach No. 1 in the ITF junior rankings, all that was obvious at the time was that if he kept improving at the level that he had, that he was a surefire top 50 pro.

He met that projection in 2011, finishing the season ranked a career high No. 39.

On Friday in Melbourne, the now 23 year old Young took down former top-5 player James Blake 7-5, 6-4 in the second round of the Australian Open qualifying. It was unlikely the most gratifying win of his career given that he has competed in the main draw of numerous Grand Slams, but it was surely a satisfying victory as the lefthander had a 2012 that was well below his own standards.

Young – who wears a 10sballs.com patch — has always believed that he has top 20-material and when he’s fit and confident it is clear that he does. But he has a steep mountain to climb, as he came into 2013 ranked No. 190, which is why he was forced to try and qualify for Melbourne.

One of his coaches, Roger Smith, couldn’t make the trip across the Pacific due to visa problems so Donald and his mother and coach Illona had to devise a plan to confront Blake, who is no spring chicken, but is still a very threatening player.

They came up with the right recipe and now he’ll face Britain’s Jaime Backer for a spot in the main draw.

There are few reasons outside of a catastrophic injury why Young can’t climb back into the top 40 or higher. Young is a crafty lefty with soft touch, a big forehand and a hard to read twisting serve. He’s fast and can play both steely defense and high-octane offense.

But he has had an up and down career.

Perhaps he began to play ATP matches too early before he was physically and mentally up to the challenge. But he was so darned talented it would have been hard to tell him that at least he shouldn’t give it a try.

“He has a winning way about him,” USTA High Performance chief Eliot Teltscher said about him in 2005. “It would be hard to believe that he won’t make it as a pro. He moves very well and has beautiful strokes. He really knows his way around the court.”

It took Young until 2008 to become a regular ATP player, but he stuck with it.

In 2011, which was his best year by long shot, he had to scratch and claw his way out of the Challenger circuit back into the big show. It wasn’t pleasant going city to city playing smaller events, but he toughened up and improved. There were times when he thought of taking a break from the sport, but his support network never left him and that sure did help.

“My team was pretty much, saying, ‘You can do it, and, ‘It would be a waste of talent if you didn’t continue,” Young said. It’s ultimately what I chose to do for a career, my job, to make a living. You just don’t quit work if you’re a smart person and sit around if you want to eat and have a lifestyle you enjoy. But I love tennis. It wasn’t that I didn’t love tennis, I just hated losing. That was pretty much the issue for me.”

Young caught fire in the summer, when he reached the fourth round of major for the first time at the 2011 US Open, upsetting No. 14 Stan Wawrinka in five sets and No. 24 Juan-Ignacio Chela before losing to Andy Murray.

During the Asian fall swing, Young reached his first ever ATP final at the Thailand Open when he upset Gael Monfils. and he also qualified and reached the second round of the ATP Masters 1000 in Shanghai.

But he decided to fiddle around with his racquet selection in the off-season, got off to a poor start in 2012 and never recovered. However, he is said to have put his nose to the grindstone in the off-season and now is in position to make a mark a major again.

As he once said, sometimes the light goes on for people at different times.

Young hoping that in the last round of qualifying against Baker, the light will go on so brightly that h will catch fire and go on a run during the rest fortnight.

“You have your highs and lows in tennis,” Young once said. “I’ve definitely had the lows. Hopefully I’ll have a lot more highs.

Topics: Australian Open 2013, Donald Young, Jaime Backer, James Blake, Sports, Tennis News