Paris: American Donald Young is hoping that, at nearly 25 years old, he still has time to realise all the potential he once showed as a teenage ‘Boy Wonder’.
His 6-3, 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 win over Spanish 26th seed Feliciano Lopez on Thursday moved him into the third round of the French Open.
It is just the third time he has gone that far at a Grand Slam tournament since he first played as a precocious 16-year-old at the 2005 US Open.
Back then, Young was being touted as the next big thing in US tennis, seamlessly taking over from the golden generation of the likes of Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier and Michael Chang.
In 2003, he won the prestigious Orange Bowl under-16 title, becoming the first American to take that age division crown since Courier in 1986 and, for a period of time in 2005, he was ranked the number one junior player in the world.
He was even the only sports figure in Newsweek Magazine’s “Who’s next?” feature in December, 2004.
Reality, however, proved to be harshly different as the Chicagoan struggled to make it past the secondary Futures and Challengers divisions.
To date he has only reached one ATP Tour final — at Bangkok in 2001 — and at Grand Slams he had only twice managed to get past the second round, before coming into Paris.
Asked if he could explain what had happened to his once blossoming career, Young replied: “Hindsight is 20/20.
“The hype came because at the time I was doing things no one else had done. It’s the first for everything. You don’t know how to deal with it.
“Looking at it again, you might do some things different, but I can’t do it now. If I had it over to do again, I probably would do a few things different.
“I mean, would I love to be further along by now? Yeah, for sure. But it didn’t happen.
“Now I’m starting to play better. Not better but more consistent than before. Definitely. I mean, whenever it’s coming or it comes, I’m going to be there and ready and happy it happens.
“So I’m not going to be mad it didn’t happen earlier, because that’s in the past and I can only deal with what’s in the future.”
Young’s resurgence comes at a handy time for US men’s tennis after a dismal past few years at Roland Garros.
John Isner, the 10th seed, is safely into the third round, where he will play Tommy Robredo, and the Americans are sure of a third representative in the third round with former top junior Jack Sock due to play Steve Johnson later on Thursday.
Young says that he finds it all very encouraging.
“I think it’s great. The guys are playing well,” he said. “They are playing well and everyone is kind of knocking at the door.
“Obviously the draw helps out a lot in tournaments like this. Everybody can easily play a top 10 guy except for John and go out.
“The draws have really opened up with Steve and Jack. I think with [Tommy] Haas going out and it’s definitely opened up they have a potential to make the fourth round.
“[Stan] Wawrinka going out in my half, it’s not like it’s an insurmountable task for me to make the fourth round as well.
“But I’m going to take it one match at a time and see how it goes.”
