Tennis Week - News - Young Downs Dent

Young Downs Dent By Steve Pratt

Friday, October 23, 2009

There’s just something about California that gets Donald Young’s game going. The unseeded 20-year-old took out Taylor Dent in convincing fashion, 6-3, 6-2 on Thursday to move into the quarterfinals of the USTA Men’s Pro Tennis Championship of Calabasas.

"I just love playing here," said Young, who controlled Dent’s heavy serve and volley game throughout the match. "Semis is my worst finish here. I just like it. My only singles titles came in California (Aptos in 2007 and Sacramento in 2008) and I’ve had success at the Easter Bowl and Indian Wells."

Young was a finalist at the $50,000 event being played at the Calabasas Tennis & Swim Club in 2007 (lost to Robert Kendrick) and a semifinalist last year (lost to Sam Warburg). At Indian Wells in 2008, Young made it to the third round with a victory over Bobby Reynolds and No. 32-seeded Feliciano López in three sets before losing to Rafael Nadal.

Later in the summer of 2008 at the Countrywide Classic in Los Angeles, Young defeated Tommy Haas (ranked No. 40 at the time) 6-2, 6-4.

Young, who recently dropped out of the top 200 and is now in the mid 220s after reaching a career-high of 73 after Indian Wells last year, next plays qualifier Luka Gregorc of Slovakia in Friday’s night match. Gregorc brushed aside top-seeded Kevin Kim on Thursday, 6-4, 6-3.

Gregorc is joined in the quarterfinals by another qualifier, Pasadena’s Cecil Mamiit, who will next play Japan’s Go Soeda. Only two seeded players remain in the singles draw and they face each other Friday as No. 2 Michael Russell meets No. 7 Grega Zemlja.

Kim also lost his doubles match on Thursday, 6-4, 6-0. Kim received a wild card along with partner Mark Ein, the 43-year-old Washington D.C. resident who is also the owner of the World Team Tennis Washington Kastles. Kim played for the WTT’s newest franchise the Kastles’ in 2008. The Kastles are the reigning 2009 WTT Champions.

"We were up 3-0, two breaks and had game point," said Ein afterward. "Who knows what would have happened had we gotten that point.” Asked what happened in the second set, Ein said, “I’m not sure. It happened so fast. When you’re out there everything seems to just go so fast."

Ein said he enjoyed the experience and imagined for a moment what it would be like to play on the pro circuit day in and day out. "That’s what would be fun," he said. "To just go out there and play and being comfortable would be great. I’d love to do it again. I had the best partner of course. He was unbelievable. I’d only do it again with him."

Thursday’s Singles Scores
wc: wild card; q: qualifier

RESULTS - OCTOBER 19
Luka Gregorc (q), Slovakia, def. Kevin Kim (1), United States, 6-4, 6-3
Go Soeda, Japan, def. Santiago Gonzalez, Mexico, 6-4, 6-2
Donald Young, United States, def. Taylor Dent (5), United States, 6-3, 6-2
Cecil Mamiit (q), Philippines, def. Marinko Matosevic, Australia, 6-4, 6-3

Men's Doubles Quarterfinals
Santiago Gonzalez, Mexico-Simon Stadler, Germany, def. Lester Cook, United States-David Martin, United States (1), 6-4, 7-6 (3)
Treat Conrad Huey, Philippines-Harsh Mankad, India (3), def. Brian Battistone, United States-Dann Battistone (wc), United States, 6-2, 6-2
Gustavo Sanchez, Venezuela-Craig Schwartz, United States, def. Mark Ein, United States-Kevin Kim, United States (WC), 6-4, 6-0
Raven Klaasen, South Africa-Izak Van Der Merwe, South Africa, Prakash Amritraj, India-Alex Kuznetsov (4), United States, 6-2, 6-3

Friday’s Schedule
Center Court, Starting at 11 a.m.
[3] T Huey (PHI) / H Mankad (IND) vs G Sanchez (VEN) / C Schwartz (USA)