Status: ATP professional scored one of the best wins of his career in Indian Wells by defeating world #5 Andy Murray in two sets.
Ht: 5-10. Weight: 165
DOB: July 23, 1989 in Chicago, IL.
Tennis Inspirations: “Sampras, Agassi, McEnroe.”
Nickname: “DY — that’s about it.”
Hobbies/Interests: “Ping pong, baseball, basketball, video games.”
Favorite Movie: “Matrix.”
Favorite TV Show: “Smallville.”
Musical Tastes: “Rap, R&B.”
Current Car: “BMW.”
Rookie ATP Tour Memory: “Federer came up to me actually, gave me a handshake and said ‘Hello, keep up the good work.’ (Any other top players make an effort to say hello like that with you?) Roddick. Srichaphan. Gimelstob. A lot of the older guys like Todd Martin, Jim Courier, McEnroe, they all came up and had nice things to say. Paul Goldstein too.”
Favorite Meal: “Lasagna, Italian.”
Favorite Breakfast Cereal: “Golden Grahams.”
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: “Daiquiri ice.”
Pre-match Feeling: “Think about winning.”
Greatest Tennis Moment: “So far, winning Australian Open (d. Sun-Yong Kim 6-2, 6-4 in 2005).”
Most Painful Moment: “Losing Orange Bowl finals (to Tim Neilly in Dec. 2004).”
Embarrassing Tennis Memory: “No.”
Favorite Athletes To Watch: “Federer — I think everybody likes Federer’s game [smiles]. Agassi. Nadal. (NBA?) Jordan. (NFL?) Terrell Owens. (MLB?) Jeter. (Boxing?) Muhammad Ali, (Golf?) Tiger Woods.”
Closest Tennis Friends: “A lot of guys coming up.”
Favorite Tournament: “The U.S. Open. Because it’s in New York, in the U.S. It’s the biggest tournament we have.”
People Qualities Most Admired: “Good people. That’s it really.”
DY breaking through at Indian Wells
Andrew Miller · March 15, 2011 at 1:37 am
DY ran into Robredo, who is an under-rated player. If he were from the states, Robredo would easily be the U.S.’ 2nd best player, and you have to beat him. It’s too bad DY didn’t play better – hopefully he keeps practicing like he did leading up to Indian Wells.
Scoop Malinowski · March 15, 2011 at 4:14 pm
Robredo is very underrated. Very tough player with a long consistent career just a fraction or so off from being in the top tier of elites. I’ve seen Robrredo play some amazing tennis, like last year in the Hopman Cup final when he was down a set to Murray in the final then all the sudden started playing lights out tennis and came back and won the second set with some spectcular full throttle tennis shotmaking. Murray won the first set easy and was playing excellent but was shellshocked by Robredo. The point is Robredo is an excellent underrated player and still too experienced for a guy like DY at this point.
Andrew Miller · March 16, 2011 at 1:38 am
I definitely agree with Scoop. I don’t want to praise Robredo too much – but Robredo has 5 slam QFs, one Masters shield and tons of 4th round slam appearances at age 28 – he has far more to show than any current U.S. player not named Andy Roddick, and a player has to beat him, and his consistency, to win. Robredo’s essentially a poor man’s Federer: not as quick, not as good, not as consistent, not as powerful – but plenty quick, plenty good, plenty consistent, and plenty powerful (2-2 against Murray, no slouch against other top ten players not named Djokovic, Federer, Nadal).
So, I hope Donald Young keeps practicing hard. Clearly Sampras and the practice sessions with Fish and Querrey made a huge difference.
Andrew Miller · March 16, 2011 at 1:47 am
Interesting quote from ESPN 3 on Ryan Harrison’s win over Raonic (Raonic, like Sampras or Federer sometimes, seemed to play Harrison’s game at the end of the match)
“I think he won simply because of his courage”
helluva volley on the deuce point, 2nd to last point of the match. Well, gotta hand it to Rhino Harrison: the kid played big to make it to the match, and then played big in a bragging rights match of the youth movement in the ATP.
Dan Markowitz · March 16, 2011 at 1:25 pm
You’re right, Andrew, that was a hellava volley by Harrison at deuce of the last game, especially since the previous time he came to net he got passed by Raonic. I liked Harrison’s guts out there. He looked like Jimbo Connors.