Redemption is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?!
No matter what happens from here on out, this has definitely been Donald Young’s big moment.
He came into the the US Open on a nice run with decent results during the summer hardcourt series, including the Legg Mason where he lost in the semi-finals to Radek Stepanek. This was his first-ever ATP semi-final appearance. But as always, the question with Donald was could he carry these results into the US Open? The answer turned out to be an emphatic “Yes”.
There was his first round win over Lukas Lacko: a solid victory, but not wholly unexpected. The jaw-dropper came in his gritty 5 set win over Stan Wawrinka in the second round. THAT was a match he was not supposed to win against a solid veteran opponent. But he did. With gritty determined play and a positive fighting attitude he never would have displayed in years past, Donald dug deep to grind out the victory over the 14th seed. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind who saw this match that it represented a game-changer for Donald and his career.
Normally one could expect a letdown after such a hard-fought win, but not so with Donald as he followed up his Wawrinka win with a straight-set victory over veteran Juan Ignacio Chela. He struggled a bit with Chela’s caginess and defense, but was again able to keep his head and close out the match with great offense. He served at 71%, had more winners than errors (46/36), and converted 5 of 10 break point chances.
The potential was always there, but something has finally clicked in Donald that turned the potential into reality. Two things stand out as catalysts for this transformation. The first was his infamous “USTA Twitter Episode” when he used Twitter to vent his frustrations at needing to play a USTA qualifying event to get a French Open wildcard. He literally bit the hand that had been feeding him support and wildcards over the years with not much to show for it. He was called out by Patrick McEnroe, who demanded an apology. Young realized the misfortune of his tweet and apologized to the USTA staff and coaches.
This was an important turning point for Donald. Up to this point he steadfastly refused to make changes in his coaching situation with his parents or his training regimen. It wasn’t working for him, but he was unwilling to do anything different. Then it happened… a moment where he was forced to confront the reality of his situation (potential un-met, losing results, and fading opportunities). He didn’t want to keep going on that path, so he decided to do something different.
I’ve excerpted part of his September 4th interview at the US Open below. Donald is a very candid and thoughtful young man, and openly talks about what he has done different that might be paying off in better results:
9/4/11 interview
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.
Better late than never, right? Donald has slowly realized that just because he was able to turn pro at such a young age doesn’t mean that he had any idea what it meant to be “professional”. It took a lot of years and missteps, but hopefully the lessons learned will stick. His chances in his round of 16 match against Andy Murray (4) aren’t very good, and he knows it. His win over Murray at Indian Wells came after Andy’s long post-Aussie layoff where he was thoroughly outclassed by Djokovic. He was obviously not on his game at the time. The circumstances are different now and Andy comes into the US Open this year with a good outside chance at taking the title.
Donald will have to battle harder than ever to get past Murray. He has never before gone this deep in a Grand Slam, and his lack of experience probably will probably be his undoing. Andy Murray has much more experience in playing and winning these types of matches on the big stage of a Grand Slam. No matter the result, Donald will still come out of this US Open a changed man on many levels. Let’s hope it stays that way.