Young won the Wimbledon boy's title again this year - it seems like what, his 256th junior Grand Slam title? A few of us who cared (El Jon and Tom Perrotta of the New York Sun) caught up with him before the final to see how he's been doing. You'll remember that Young was last in the news in any significant way when a legion of pundits, including US Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe, voiced objections to the way Young was being serially mauled on the pro tour.
The beatings occurred because Young, a dominant junior player and the United States Next Best Hope, was being showered with wild cards from tournament promoters eager to build a relationship with him, generate publicity for their events, and provide an obvious angle for Next Best Hope stories focused on the state of American tennis.
The low point, for Young, came in the early Spring of 2006. In back-to-back matches, he got four games off Tim Henman at Indian Wells and zero games from an Argentinian clay-court expert at Key Biscayne, Carlos Berlocq. Looking back on those misadventures on the big tour, Young told us:
So the saga of Young Donald continues. He's a grizzled veteran of 18, with a game that has flummoxed his peers - the best junior players in the world. Yet it's very likely that a handful of those players will ultimately find niches on the pro tour, perhaps even as eventual winners of big tournaments, while Young may not. His game, as of now, lacks the single most important ingredient for success on the main tour: heft. For years, Young has carved up junior opponents with nice touch, angles, and trickly left-handed spins. But in main-tour events, his has been overrun by bigger, stronger, more powerful opponents.
Young is a formidable junior competitor with loads of poise and an air of confidence and ease. That's worth a few games in every match. But it was different, right from the start, in the pros. On tour, bullying is coin of the realm. You either live in fear of another player, or, sensing his fear, try to destroy him. It isn't pretty, but it's the way it is; when Young played on the tour, the pros were eager to whip his uppity behind, and once they saw his game could be defused and his confidence could be shaken, even a rank journeyman became a regular Roger Federer. That history will trail Young; it will take a lot to reverse the pattern.
However, Young is working with USTA personnel as well has his official coaches, his mom (Ilona) and dad (Donald Sr.). And he's been climbing steadily in the rankings. He has achieved one ambition he hoped to realize before the US Open of this year, breaking into the Top 300 (he's currently 290). This adjustment of expectations has probably been good for Young; by going down to play Challengers and Futures, he accomplished something he was unable to do with all the wild cards he collected: put up wins over ATP pros, like Harel Levy and Kenneth Carlsen.
"I've beaten guys who have won a lot of matches, so I feel like I'm closer," Young told us. "Hopefully, I can win a Challenger."
Serving as a Davis Cup practice player for the recent USA vs. Spain tie in North Carolina also helped Young increase his resolve and confidence. "I got a lot of confidence hanging out with Andy (Roddick) and James (Blake), the Bryans (Mike and Bob, the US doubles team), Just hitting with them, at that level, helps your game. Getting used to the ball they hit and having to lift your own game to keep up with them improves you."
Young has steered clear of his junior rivals; he has no "best friend" on the boy's circuit and even his closeness with the US Davis Cup players - all of whom have expressed an interest in helping him along - is qualified. "Its just a little different when I'm 17 or 18 and they're, like,in their twenties. We're not really doing the hanging out thing. I'm trying to focus on my tournaments anyway, and I'm too young to go to clubs with them or anything like that. . ."
