“10s Whenever” Newsletter Vol. 107

Written by: Staff on 17th January 2014

"10s Whenever" Newsletter Vol. 107

epa04023947 Donald Young of US cheers after winning against Andreas Seppi of Italy in a second round match at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 16 January 2014. EPA/NARENDRA SHRESTHA |

Donald Young On The Rise Again By TENNISREPORTERS.NET

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MELBOURNE – Donald Young is somewhat of a mystery man. . He’s quite talented, but as he’s said on numerous occasions, talent is the only one part of the equation when it comes to putting together a successful career.

He has not turned 25 yet, and physically it took him a while to sprout up and attain “men’s strength.” Consequently, his transition from juniors wasn’t easy.

On Thursday at the Australian Open he took care of Andreas Seppi in a five-set classic that was suspended due to heat for a good four hours.

With temperatures soaring at 110 Fahrenheit around 1:50PM, Young and Seppi and the rest of the players outside the two main stadium were given a long break as the tournament’s extreme heat policy went into effect. Young and Seppi had split the four sets and the American needed to cool down. He said that he burning up and was happy to have the delay and has begun to lose his bearings.

“That’s not something I want to experience again, but next time I will be able deal with it better,” he said.

Back on court, he nearly lost control of the contest when he served it at 5-4 in the fifth set , and admittedly nervous, he was broken at love.

But then he went all out “Jimmy Connors ” on Seppi, breaking him back to 6-5 when he went up and back, to and fro stabbing any ball he could get back into play. The man who is nicknamed ‘D.Y. ’ fist pumped and a few minutes later he held to win the match 6-4 2-6 6-3 4-6 7-5, danced around the court and entered the third round of a Slam for the first time since the 2011 US Open.

Young is no longer the kid he was in 2005 in Melbourne when he became the youngest male to win the Australian Open juniors at age 15, six months in 2005 and became the youngest player ever to reach No. 1 in the ITF junior rankings.

He has been through tennis ups and downs, cracking the top 40 in 2011, falling out of the top 200 in 2013 and re-entering the top 100 last November after a strong series of performances at some Challengers.

Over the years, he’s been granted a slew of wild cards, but has also been forced to qualify for numerous events. Some weeks he can toss his racket bag into a plush locker room and dig into five star catered food, others he’s keeping his possessions close to his side because there are no real locker rooms at some Futures and he’s eating out of snack machines.

“When you grow up you want to be pro and it’s a dream for everybody, and then when you get out there you realize how tough it is and you debate sometimes whether you want to do it or not,” he said. “I had those moments. It wasn’t all up and there were a lot of downs, but at the end of the day my job is what I want to do, I love playing tennis and competing, I wouldn’t want to do anything else unless I was forced to.”

Young says that hen has played for family, for his coaches, for his friends. But most importantly, he says that he has some things that he wants to demonstrate to himself, which will make him happy. That doesn’t mean that he has to win every time out, but it does mean that he has to compete until he last ball. As long as he gives it his best, he can be satisfied with his career.

“I just wanted to get back to where I was, and higher. Really prove to myself that I could do it. I really don’t want to have any regrets and for a while I was having some regrets. Just want to keep working hard and not have any of those.”

On Saturday, the 24 year old will confront someone he knows from the juniors in the third round, 16th seed Kei Nishikori. Young says that while he realizes that Japan’s top player shot up faster than he did, but it’s good to go up against a guy he played against as kid. He is brimming with confidence and is ready to make a go of it.

“He’s playing well and going to be tough match, but I look forward to it,” he said. “I want stay at this level. That’s where I want to be.”