Donald Young’s Remarkable Return: From Pickleball to US Open 2024 Mixed Doubles Semifinals
Donald Young, formerly regarded as a tennis prodigy in the United States, is now a professional pickleball player.
But the 35-year-old is unexpectedly returning to the game of tennis, having advanced to the semifinals of the US Open mixed doubles tournament with Taylor Townsend, the most recent Wimbledon women’s doubles champion.
In September of last year, Donald Young played his final singles match at a Challenger tournament in Charleston. He hadn’t played doubles in Chicago in fourteen months. In his final tennis match, Donald Young might win a Grand Slam championship.
There are two reasons the sport is mentioned. First off, Young—a former American tennis prodigy—now plays pickleball professionally. The second reason is that mixed doubles is a third Grand Slam tennis category. And Young has the most capable partner of all at this US Open.
The 35-year-old is partnered with fellow Chicagoan and recent Wimbledon women’s doubles champion Taylor Townsend. They entered Flushing Meadows as wild cards and looked impressive, winning their first two matches in straight sets and defeating Harri Heliövaara (the Wimbledon men’s doubles champion) and Anna Danilina in a 10-8 match tiebreaker.
While there wasn’t a full house in the Grandstand at the US Open on Labor Day, there were some of the loudest cheers of the past two weeks during the dramatic extra session.
“Holy sh*t,” Townsend said, momentarily losing track of her location. “The excitement was really what got us through…You guys are amazing.
“With Donald, these are the moments we live for, 10-8 in the third,” she went on. I feel a lot of nostalgia for it. Being on the same side as him and not having that forehand land on my head makes me very happy.
The most intriguing shot that Young made came at 7-7, but it was his forehand that guaranteed the team’s place in the semifinals, where they will take on Rohan Bopanna and Aldila Sutjiadi. Young smoothly and with little margin for error cut under the ball in response to a brief volley from Danilina to preserve the point, which they would win. I thought it looked really dink-y.
For the uninitiated, a “dink” is the most typical shot in professional pickleball; it is struck close to the net but not too close. Young can demonstrate how to do it:
According to Young, “making a consistent dink over and over is just so monotonous.” “The complete opposite of what you want to do in tennis is to play soft.”
Young only began playing pickleball seriously in August of last year, and this year she committed herself full-time to the rapidly growing sport. He’s defeated highly regarded players in singles matches, including Connor Garnett and Jay Devilliers. In a doubles match, he and Devilliers defeated famous player Tyson McGuffin andJack Sock, a former tennis player who now plays pickleball:
However, Young’s pickleball dreams of “a triple crown would be amazing,” “a gold medal, maybe two events in one tournament,” will have to wait. His tennis career is still ongoing.
Young grinned and said, “We’re still playing, but we’ll get to the end when we get to the end.” “It’s awesome to perform here once more.”
Ten years ago, Young reached this point in the mixed competition, but at that time, the former junior No. 1 was still aiming for the Top 10 in singles. To the dismay of many fans, he never rose that high, but in 2012, he broke into the Top 40 and made it to the US Open‘s fourth round twice.
In two singles and two doubles tour-level finals, Young is 0-4 overall. Young remarked of Monday’s match, “I had a great partner on my side, but my hands were shaking pretty hard there at the end.” These are scenarios I haven’t encountered in a very long time.
He’s overdue, if you will.
How far does Townsend think her team can go?
“Is that a query?” She fired back. “Get moving.”
