Donald Young and his 16-match losing streak – Tennis Special
USA’s Donald Young gave some incredible performances when he was a junior. He was regarded to be America's next number one by many tennis analysts, some even used to say that he would become world’s highest ranked player one day.
However, the American has been unable to live up to the expectations. Young has failed to win even a single title on the ATP World Tour so far in his career.
The 23-year-old had started to rise slowly in the rankings at the end of last year but a recent slump in form has rung alarms in Young’s camp. The American lost to Jeremy Chardy in the first round of the Rogers Cup in Toronto.
That was his 16th straight loss on the ATP World Tour. The Georgia resident has not won a single match since February this year. He is now second on the list of most successive losses, trailing only to his compatriot, Vincent Spadea, who lost 21
matches in a row in 1999 and 2000.
Talking to the reporters after losing to Chardy, Young said, “It’s not exciting. It’s not the best time in my career by any means. I just have to find a way to get out of it.”
The American player was near victory in many of these matches but he could not capitalise on his opportunities. He added, “I don’t know, you tell me. You keep playing, fighting, competing. At some point I’m going to win. It’s just
a question of when and not if. Hopefully, it will happen soon. Hopefully, I can laugh about it later this year.”
Young also shared that he has kept on changing his racquets during this six month period, which has further added to his problems. He went on to state. “Pretty much, the whole year except for the last month I’ve been playing with
a bunch of different racquets. That didn’t help.”
The American player’s last win was against Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria in the first round of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis, USA in February. His series of defeats started, when he lost to fellow countryman,
John Isner, in straight sets 6-7(3), 4-6 in the second round of that event. Young was ranked 41st in the world at that time.
In the next tournament, the American contestant was badly beaten by compatriot, Ryan Sweeting, 1-6, 1-6 in the first round. Young was close to winning his opener at the BNP Paribas Open next week but he lost to Belgium’s Steve
Darcis in three sets 2-6, 6-3, 6-7(5).
The 6ft tall completed hat-trick of going down in the first rounds, as he was ousted by the then world number 148, David Goffin of Belgium, 5-7, 4-6 at the Sony Ericsson Open.
Young also lost in his opening round matches at the French Open and Wimbledon Championships. He was even beaten by Steve Johnson, who was ranked 402nd at that time, in the first round of BB&T Atlanta Open.
Instead of keeping on losing in the first round matches on the ATP World Tour, it would be better for Young that he play a couple of challenger events and regain his confidence by winning some matches there. Young’s ranking is
dropping fast and if things go in the same way, he would be unable to get direct entry in tour level events.
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