By Mike McIntyre
American tennis player Donald Young's string of bad luck continued today at the Rogers Cup in Toronto as he was defeated by Jeremy Chardy 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-0 in the opening match of the tournament on Centre Court. Young has now remarkably lost sixteen matches in-a-row stretching all the way back to February.
Young started the day well by going ahead 2-0 before allowing Chardy to win three straight games to get back into the opening frame. An error-filled first set would see several breaks of serve and a slightly steadier Young would hold-on for a 6-3 margin.
In the second set Chardy's serve would heat up allowing him a few more free points and his forehand settled into range as well. Young would go down 2-4, but managed to claw his way back into the set and save three set points to force a second set tiebreak. In the breaker however it was mostly the Frenchman who was dictating play and he would jump out to a 6-2 lead, before finally taking it 7-4.
In the third set Young's shaky mental framework would completely fall apart as he lost all six games to essentially hand the match to Chardy. Six months of consistent losing has clearly effected his ability to fight his way back into a tennis match.
Young will undoubtedly be hoping that he can still find a way to salvage this season with a few months of play still to go. It was around this time a year ago that Young stepped-up his play and saw his ranking jump from 128th to 44th by the end of 2011. It is actually a testament to his strong finish that year that has allowed him to maintain a ranking inside of the top one hundred despite his monumental collapse this season.
If things continue, Young will soon be challenging retired American Vince Spadea for the all-time worst losing streak on the ATP World Tour. Spadea dropped 21 straight matches between 1999 and 2000. Young will unwillingly takingover that dismal record if he does not take some concrete steps to rectify his current situation.
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