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Sunday, September 4, 2011
In front of a boisterous and supportive crowd, American Donald Young defeated the No. 24 seed Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career. Young played smart, gritty tennis, matching Chela’s consistent baseline game when he needed to and employing more offensive firepower than his higher-ranked opponent. Young hit 46 winners to Chela’s 19, and converted on five of 10 break point opportunities to take a hard-fought 7-5, 6-4, 6-3 win.
This latest upset for the No. 84-ranked Young continues a roll like no other he's had in the pros. His three wins here equal the number of Grand Slam victories he’s had in his entire career, having won two matches at the 2007 US Open and one match at the 2010 Australian Open. It follows on the heels of his second round win over the No. 14 seed Stanislas Wawrinka, a match that saw Young score the first five-set victory of his career. His ranking had fallen to No. 146 as recently as this past February, but Young came into the Open with the highest ranking he's had since May of 2008, and after this tournament it will climb much higher.
"This is what you work for, this is what you dream of," Young said after his win. "I'm just excited to be able to do this in New York, in my home country's major."
Chela may be most known for his clay-court prowess, but this still represents for Young another huge upset over a respected Tour veteran. Chela is a three-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist, including at this year’s French Open and the 2007 US Open. He’s been ranked in the top 50 most of the past 11 years, and reached a high of No. 15 back in 2004.
While Young is just 22-year-old, this is his seventh US Open main draw appearance, and it appears that he’s formed a strong bond with the New York crowd. The fans that packed Louis Armstrong Stadium were solidly and loudly in Young’s corner from the start, cheering every point that went his way, winners and Chela’s unforced errors alike. Frequent chants ranged from “Let’s go Donald” and “USA, USA, USA”, to just simply “Donald, Donald, Donald.” The one cheer of “C’mon Chela,” called out in the middle of the third set was met by the crowd with a collective laugh.
Young gave the crowd a lot to cheer about early on. He won the first six points of the match and broke Chela in the second game, racing out to a 5-2 lead. But Chela upped his level, showing the kind of powerful forehands and backhands that have led him to six career titles, all on clay. He broke Young in the ninth game, and held to even things up at 5-5, the momentum seeming to swing to the Argentine.
"I was a little disappointed I didn't serve out the first set," Young said afterwards. "I thought I was giving a chance away and maybe he would take advantage."
With Young serving at 5-5, Chela had two break points. But Young saved them both, held, and then jumped on top of Chela in the next game, nailing two forehand winners up the line to start the 12th game. With Chela serving and down 30-40, Young secured the break and the first set with a volley winner, and then matched the crowd’s cheering with his own scream of, “C’mon, let’s go!”
In the second set, perhaps coming down from the high of the first set, Young dropped his serve in the third game after two quick errors and a double fault. But Young, showing tremendous poise and fight, broke back in the eighth game to even things up at 4-4. He followed with an ace and a forehand winner to hold to 5-4, and with Chelsa serving at 5-6, 30-0, Young climbed back, scoring four straight points to take a two-set lead.
In the third set Young broke in the eighth game to go up 5-3, and then closed out the match at love, receiving a standing ovation from the crowd in the final game when he got up 40-0.
Young said the crowd support was key to his victory, particularly in the their set when he began to feel fatigued. "The energy was kind of going away," he said. "They definitely pushed me through."
In this performance here, we are finally seeing the player the tennis cognoscenti had touted for so long after Young’s impressive junior career. In 2005, Young finished the year as the No. 1 ranked junior in the world. He was 16 years and 5 months old at the time, still the youngest male to pull off that feat. Young won the 2005 Australian Open at the ripe age of 15, and the Wimbledon juniors in 2007 at age 17.
In the fourth round Young will take on the winner of tonight’s Andy Murray vs. Feliciano Lopez match.
This latest upset for the No. 84-ranked Young continues a roll like no other he's had in the pros. His three wins here equal the number of Grand Slam victories he’s had in his entire career, having won two matches at the 2007 US Open and one match at the 2010 Australian Open. It follows on the heels of his second round win over the No. 14 seed Stanislas Wawrinka, a match that saw Young score the first five-set victory of his career. His ranking had fallen to No. 146 as recently as this past February, but Young came into the Open with the highest ranking he's had since May of 2008, and after this tournament it will climb much higher.
"This is what you work for, this is what you dream of," Young said after his win. "I'm just excited to be able to do this in New York, in my home country's major."
Chela may be most known for his clay-court prowess, but this still represents for Young another huge upset over a respected Tour veteran. Chela is a three-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist, including at this year’s French Open and the 2007 US Open. He’s been ranked in the top 50 most of the past 11 years, and reached a high of No. 15 back in 2004.
While Young is just 22-year-old, this is his seventh US Open main draw appearance, and it appears that he’s formed a strong bond with the New York crowd. The fans that packed Louis Armstrong Stadium were solidly and loudly in Young’s corner from the start, cheering every point that went his way, winners and Chela’s unforced errors alike. Frequent chants ranged from “Let’s go Donald” and “USA, USA, USA”, to just simply “Donald, Donald, Donald.” The one cheer of “C’mon Chela,” called out in the middle of the third set was met by the crowd with a collective laugh.
Young gave the crowd a lot to cheer about early on. He won the first six points of the match and broke Chela in the second game, racing out to a 5-2 lead. But Chela upped his level, showing the kind of powerful forehands and backhands that have led him to six career titles, all on clay. He broke Young in the ninth game, and held to even things up at 5-5, the momentum seeming to swing to the Argentine.
"I was a little disappointed I didn't serve out the first set," Young said afterwards. "I thought I was giving a chance away and maybe he would take advantage."
With Young serving at 5-5, Chela had two break points. But Young saved them both, held, and then jumped on top of Chela in the next game, nailing two forehand winners up the line to start the 12th game. With Chela serving and down 30-40, Young secured the break and the first set with a volley winner, and then matched the crowd’s cheering with his own scream of, “C’mon, let’s go!”
In the second set, perhaps coming down from the high of the first set, Young dropped his serve in the third game after two quick errors and a double fault. But Young, showing tremendous poise and fight, broke back in the eighth game to even things up at 4-4. He followed with an ace and a forehand winner to hold to 5-4, and with Chelsa serving at 5-6, 30-0, Young climbed back, scoring four straight points to take a two-set lead.
In the third set Young broke in the eighth game to go up 5-3, and then closed out the match at love, receiving a standing ovation from the crowd in the final game when he got up 40-0.
Young said the crowd support was key to his victory, particularly in the their set when he began to feel fatigued. "The energy was kind of going away," he said. "They definitely pushed me through."
In this performance here, we are finally seeing the player the tennis cognoscenti had touted for so long after Young’s impressive junior career. In 2005, Young finished the year as the No. 1 ranked junior in the world. He was 16 years and 5 months old at the time, still the youngest male to pull off that feat. Young won the 2005 Australian Open at the ripe age of 15, and the Wimbledon juniors in 2007 at age 17.
In the fourth round Young will take on the winner of tonight’s Andy Murray vs. Feliciano Lopez match.
Match Facts
- Young is coached by his parents Donald Sr. and Illona. His parents are teaching professionals and run a tennis center outside Atlanta, Ga.- At age 32, Chela was the third oldest man to reach the third round.
- Chela has been named to Argentina’s Davis Cup team to face Serbia in the World Group semifinals that begins on September 16.
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| Donald Young USA |  | 7 | 6 | 6 | |||||||||||||||
| Juan Ignacio Chela ARG (24) | 5 | 4 | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
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An Interview With: Donald Young
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Q. Andy was asked or told that we've been complaining about American tennis not being very good. Obviously nobody in the second week of Wimbledon. Now there will be at least four American men in the second week here. Nice competition. Do you see an improvement there?
DONALD YOUNG: Yeah, I mean, I think the players, we've heard it quite a bit. Not necessarily me all the time, but I'm sure Andy, Mardy, John, James, and Sam have heard it quite a bit. Yeah, it's great. I think that's the way it should be here, especially at the US Open. The crowd support really pull you through a lot of matches. Like I say, I think they've been close. For Andy, James, and Mardy, they've been holding it down for quite a while. They've done well, but the competition around the world has gotten better. I just think it's tougher to do it.
Q. You said that everybody's light comes on at a different time. Has your light come on and why?
DONALD YOUNG: I think it's coming on. I mean, hopefully it is. I mean, I don't have a real reason, but I have things I think are part of the reason why. I would say I worked harder and did a lot of different things in the off season, tried to train a little different, just try different things, be a little more open minded. I don't want the same results, so I have to try something different. You can't get different results doing the same old thing.
Q. Is it possible that the Twitter incident was a good thing?
DONALD YOUNG: Definitely not (smiling).
Q. Jose was saying it got everything out in the open.
DONALD YOUNG: Yeah, it's not the way it should have been done. But things are smooth now. We're all okay and great. So hopefully we can move forward.
Q. You've said you've done a lot of different things in the off season. Could you be a little more specific.
DONALD YOUNG: Yeah, well, first of all, I went down to L.A. for close to a month with the USTA in Carson, trained with Mardy and Sam, hit with Pete. That was only a couple times. Worked out with the trainers they have there. We were doing two a days in the gym, two a days tennis, which is more than I've ever done before. For a time right after I was beat, but I think it's starting to pay off now.
Q. What prompted you going there?
DONALD YOUNG: Like I said, I wanted to do something different. All the off seasons I've spent a week or two training and then at home just kind of having fun. I could have trained harder at home, but I didn't. So, you know, to take me away from home it made me I was actually there by myself, so to do that was really different, to be by myself every day to get up and eat breakfast at the same time and go work out. It was great.
Q. How difficult has it been with all the expectation on your shoulders from such a young age and the results not coming?
DONALD YOUNG: It was tough because I wanted to win. I was used to winning. When you're used to winning and you start losing, it doesn't feel good. Then I was looking at myself at 15 playing grown men 25 to 30. If I look back at myself, even at 22 I would hate to lose to someone 15, so I would try a lot harder anyway. And I really can't see myself losing to someone 15. So it was a learning experience. I think those things I did helped me now. It's better late than never.
Q. How much do you know about your potential next two opponents? You played Murray earlier this year.
DONALD YOUNG: A lot. Obviously, first up, Andy is a great player. He's been 2 in the world. Multiple slam finalist. He's consistent at what he does. He's in really good shape. He's a great player. And López, another good player. He's having a good year. I think he did well at Wimbledon, beating Andy in Davis Cup. He's playing well. So it's not going to be easy for me. I'm happy to move on to the Round of 16, but have to be ready for the next match.
Q. You've had expectations and people have opinions pro and con. Today out on the court you were surrounded by a stadium full of people that were a hundred percent for you. What did that feel like?
DONALD YOUNG: Pretty much every time I play here they're a hundred percent for me. It feels great. At times it can be really good, and at times they can want you to win so bad they say a lot of things that at the time I know they mean well, but you're kind of upset about it. Other than that, the crowd was great. Without them, I wouldn't have won at all today. I don't think I would have had a chance because, like I said, I was kind of getting a little fatigued. The energy was kind of going away. They definitely pushed me through.
Q. Coming out of here, what do you need to do next?
DONALD YOUNG: Just keep working hard. I'm not to where I want to be physically wise. I just want to just keep working on my game and get better. There's a lot of things I can improve. I feel like you can always improve and never feel like you know everything, which was probably a big thing of mine. I felt I didn't need to work as hard as other people. You know, talent beats hard work when talent doesn't work hard.
Q. When you were serving for the first set you got broken. You might have said a few not nice words on the court, slammed down your racquet. You were going through a rough patch. What's going through your mind and how did you get it back together?
DONALD YOUNG: I don't remember saying any bad words (laughter). But, yeah, you know, I feel like if I play too calm and don't show anything, it's not great. If I, you know, show too much, it's not great either. So kind of have to find that good middle ground. You know, I was a little disappointed I didn't serve out the first set. I thought I was giving a chance away and maybe he would take advantage. You know, I had to come back in the last match with Wawrinka, I came back a couple times, so was pretty confident I could do it again. That helped me calm down again and then I started to play better again. I don't think you saw any more negative emotions.
Q. What's the biggest court you played on? You've played on Ashe before.
DONALD YOUNG: Yeah, I played on Ashe before, so that's definitely the biggest court I ever played on. It was a great atmosphere. It was a night match against James. I lost in five, which was my first five set match. I've been there before, definitely not in the round of 16, but hopefully the crowd will be for me.
Q. What do you expect the next two days to be like?
DONALD YOUNG: I don't know. Hopefully it's the same as it's been. I want to try to keep my routine, rituals, doing the same things I've been doing during the tournament. Not change too much. I know some things might change or might not. I'm going to try to keep, as much as possible, to keep it the same.
Q. How big a result was beating Andy Murray in the spring?
DONALD YOUNG: At that point it was the biggest win in my career. It still is as far level wise of an opponent and ranking wise. It was great to get that win, but I didn't follow it up with a good match the next day against Robredo. It was just a great win for me.
Q. At your lowest point, did you ever feel like you'd never experience a run like you're having?
DONALD YOUNG: For sure. At times I wasn't winning matches at challengers and I was losing to guys 300 in the world. Actually this year I lost to some players 300. To go from losing a first round challenger in Aptos to the Round of 16 of the US Open is great. But you have your highs and lows in tennis. I've definitely had the lows. Hopefully I'll have a lot more highs.
Q. What do you think it was that you decided to stick it out?
DONALD YOUNG: As far as?
Q. When you got to the lowest point. Why a forward jump?
DONALD YOUNG: Because my team was pretty much, you know, saying, You can do it, and, It would be a waste of talent if you didn't continue. You know, 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, like I say, I love tennis. It wasn't that I didn't love tennis, I just hated losing. That was pretty much the issue for me.
Q. Do you feel now, stepping on court here, differently in terms of your confidence and your own expectations of yourself than you have in the past?
DONALD YOUNG: Yeah, for sure. Like when I step on the court I actually feel like I can win, not just put up a good front, have a good match. Before it was more so, Don't go out here and get beat, which I had done previously. But now I feel like I can actually win. That's a great feeling to go on the court, and especially in three out of five set matches I can actually go the distance. When the clock hits 2 hours, 30 minutes, 3 hours, you're getting close to tapping out. For sure, that's definitely a big thing to feel like I can win matches now.
Q. You're unique because you can play all court, soft hands. I wonder how much of what's happening now is the product of confidence and how much is growing into your game and learning where to play on the court?
DONALD YOUNG: Definitely I feel like my game I've had that discussion with my team for a while, like how should I play, because I can play so many different ways. I feel not every way can I play great. It's like Jack of all trades, master of none. Yeah, I'm definitely finding a way I can play consistently. You don't have to use absolutely everything for every opponent if it's not needed. But if it's needed, you can do it. When you go out there with a solid game plan, you know what you can do, you can execute it and not just if it doesn't work one time, go to something else too soon.
Q. If you did play Murray, it would be a different venue, much bigger occasion than Indian Wells. Do you feel you'll be able to handle that?
DONALD YOUNG: For sure. I think I'll be up for it. Definitely it will be different. It's three out of five. It's at a slam. I don't think he had too much confidence coming to Indian Wells. He wasn't playing his best. But, you know, as far as that, I'm playing well also. We'll see what happens when the match comes.
Q. If it is Andy Murray, will it be the biggest game of your life?
DONALD YOUNG: As far as slam wise it would be. I felt like I had some big matches in juniors that felt really big to me at the time. Until I get on the court and play, I don't know what the exact emotions will be.
Q. You have a style that's different from most of the players. Kind of have that Agassi thing going where you have the earrings, the sideways hat. How does style play into your life and is it important to you?
DONALD YOUNG: The earrings, I like the way they look. People like the way they look also. As far as the hat, when I first did it, it was an accident. People liked it. It's really not necessarily you know, at one time it was really extreme. But now I feel like I'm putting it on straight, but I guess I move it a little to the left. You guys seem to really get on it. As far as style, yeah, I like to play with style. I don't like to be boring. I like colors. I like to wear flashy things if I'm feeling good. If I'm not feeling good, I want to wear something neutral to not be seen in.
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