By Tia Ko
Comeback #1: The nickname began when Young, a 26-year-old American, was down two sets to love to the 11th seeded Gilles Simon in the first round of this US Open. No one could have imagined that the 68th ranked player would turn the match on its head by winning the next three sets 2-6 4-6 6-4 6-4 6-4. It was one of the first major upsets of the tournament and the beginning of a fantastic week for Young.
Comeback #2: Young’s second round match had him against Aljaz Bedene of Great Britain who is ranked slightly higher coming in at 57. Again, Young had a slow start winning only 58% of his first serves and 29% of his second serves along with a high ratio of unforced errors to winners resulting in a loss of the first set 3-6. The American wasn’t giving up anytime soon and gradually improved his serving stats to came back and win the last three sets with a final score of 3-6 6-4 6-4 6-2.
Comeback #3: The Chicago native who was trying to reach his best ever slam result was down two sets to start off his match against the 22nd seed Viktor Troicki of Serbia. The second set was a bagel set and I wasn’t expecting the third to be much different. Troicki looked fantastic out there; he was dominating Young’s serves and managed to convert 5/7 break points in the first two sets. Oh how I was wrong! The third set saw Young improve his serve dramatically and it gave him the ability to make plays up at the net where he was 16/20. He won the third in a tiebreak.
“Honestly, those two sets were over. I just kind of had to keep feeling. I felt like I was in the first set. Even though I lost 6-0, I had game points in the games. I felt like I still had more to give.”
Young won the final two sets and the match 4-6 0-6 7-6 6-2 6-4.
Now that Eugenie Bouchard has pulled out of the doubles and mixed doubles after a fall in the locker room, Young is the only player still in each of the three events. He’s into the fourth round of singles versus 5th seeded Stan Wawrinka, the third round of doubles with his partner Michael Russell where the pair with square off against two fellow Americans Steve Johnson and Sam Querry, and finally him and his mixed doubles partner Taylor Townsend are into the second round facing Andrea Hlavackova and Lukasz Kubot.
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