As I mentioned earlier this week, I had a chance to attend the US Open on Saturday. I had tickets to Armstrong Stadium and got to see 18-year old American Donald Young vs. Feliciano Lopez. Young had the crowd on his side, especially after he won the first set against the 25-year old Spainard. However, Young couldn't keep his composure--he got down on himself after every lost point, hit a ball out of the stadium, and lost his nerve a few times--and Lopez won the next three sets.
Still, this was a big breakthrough for young Donald. Young earned his first-ever victory in a Grand Slam event by defeating Chris Guccione in the first round of this year's tournament, and he advanced to the third round when his opponent withdrew due to sickness. Young was once heralded as the next great American tennis player. At 14, he was pretty much a can't-miss prospect and in 2005, he became the youngest male to win a junior Grand Slam crown, capturing the boys' title at the Australian Open. He turned pro when he was just 15 years old (some sources say 14), and signed a lucrative contracts with Nike, Head and sports management firm IMG. At 16 he was serving 131 mph.
However, Young didn't exactly start out his pro tennis career like a star--he lost his first 11 matches, and was the subject of constant criticism by commenators and media. Should he have turned pro so young? Is he putting too much pressure on himself? Are his parents, who coach him, putting too much pressure on him to succeed? Is Young's on-court behavior--self-critical muttering and dropping his head on missed shots or mistakes--an indication of this?
No one really knows. There is no "right way" to raise a tennis prodigy. Should he have turned pro at 14/15? Maybe not, but you can't really blame him for trying. You can go to school/college any time in life, but you only get a certain number of years to play tennis.
I hope Young has finally turned the corner. If he can bring his level of play up a little, I'm sure the sponsors will come knocking. If he ever wins a major event, how great a message would that be for sponsors to play up: No matter how much you lose, never give up, and good things can happen.
Hopefully, Young will get his attitude and on-court behavior figured out. You don't see many great athletes getting down on themselves the way Young does, and that behavior definitely hurts his focus and confidence. I hope he does well, because I like him and because American tennis needs him to succeed. Things haven't looked to good for American men in tennis for quite some time, and that's unlikely to change, unless Roddick can finally get the best of Federer tonight.