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Donald Young Hunting US Open Mixed Grand Slam
3 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Bios
A most unlikely story has developed at the 2024 US Open. 35 year old Donald Young could win his first Grand Slam title in his final pro match.
DY was given a gift wildcard into mixed doubles with Taylor Townsend and has seized the opportunity to reach the final vs Errani and Vavassori today on Ashe Stadium.
Young hasn’t played any pro matches this year and his last match was a 64 64 loss to Thai-Son Kwiatkowski at Charleston Challenger qualies a year ago.
Transitioning to professional pickleball in 2024, Young can still play tennis, which he has done as a pro since the age of fifteen. The former world no. 38 has won four matches this week with lefty Townsend – beating Muhammad/Molteni, Kichenok/Nys, Heliovaara/Danilina and Bopanna/Sutjiadi.
Today’s final will be Young’s second Grand Slam final – he lost at French Open doubles with Santiago Gonzalez to Ryan Harrison and Michael Venus.
Young is excited about the future of American tennis with Fritz, Tiafoe, Paul, Opelka, Nakashima, Korda leading the way. “I’m really happy for these guys. And this is the time. It’s going to be open. These guys can be great. When you have that many guys that are that good, they push each other. It’s a silent competition. You’re happy to see your mate do well but you want that too. So it pushes you to work hard.”
As the world’s no. 1 junior at age sixteen, Young was projected to become an ATP elite player but he never quite got there. He shared an honest analysis of his up and down career. “Maybe just the pressure of it. Because leading up to (turning pro) it was all really fun. I was a kid. I loved winning. I was playing against my peers. Then I was put into a place where I was playing 25 year olds and peole my current age. And there’s no way that, if I was looking at it in reverse, I was going to let someone fourteen, fifteen beat me… (My career) could have been done a lot different. Hindsight is 20/20. But on the other hand, that means I was doing something exceptional at the time people thought that it was a possibility (to be a top pro).”
This afternoon, at Flushing Meadows, NY, Donald Young has one last match to make history and become a Grand Slam champion.
Donald Young · Taylor Townsend · US Open
Cory · September 6, 2024 at 11:46 am
Watched it. Good, good match. Looked like Errani / Vav were gonna take it in straights. Errani/Vavasori make a good team there… Errani’s serves are weak but Vav patrolled the net like a hawk. Hapy DY got one last hurray and paycheck… i believe the losers share 100k and winners share 200k.
Cory · September 6, 2024 at 11:51 am
Speaking of prize money, the U.S. Open mens and women’s draws distreibute the same money. We’ve talked about this before but what a joke. I love women, and love women’s tennis but it’s this irritating need to correct markets that disturbs me. LET THE MARKETS DECIDE! Women also provide a lesser product (even if only bc of fewer sets played), and it’s obvious that the interest is less (altho it’s still quite popular, don’t get it twisted). Why can’t my daughter and I make the same money playing tiddly winks in the backyard? Bc nobody cares about my tiddly winks match and we wouldn’t sell the tickets to warrant that pay. Why not pay the wheelchair players the same?
Scoop Malinowski · September 6, 2024 at 1:30 pm
great match, interesting Townsend was the alpha and DY the beta. Bricked some volleys. Errani was a beast out there, even headbutted partner in first set tiebreaker. big summer for Errani. Still a very good result for Young in his last tournament after not playing in any pro events in over a year. The lack of matches surely caught up with him in this final.