NEW YORK (AP) — For as long as Taylor Townsend has had a racket in her hand, Donald Young and his family have been in her life.
That racket began in her right hand, but thanks to Young’s influence, she switched to swinging it with her left, just like he does. Young’s mother played doubles with Townsend’s mother. His father was Townsend’s first coach. And it was Young, a fellow Black native of Chicago, who made Townsend believe that a professional tennis career was possible.
That’s why it’s so meaningful that she might help the 35-year-old Young end his career on Thursday as a Grand Slam champion by winning the U.S. Open mixed doubles final, his last match before retiring from tennis.
“This is the decision. I’m happy with it and hopefully go one more — and it’d be really a dream come true and kind of a storybook ending for me,” Young said.
They beat the No. 8-seed team of Aldila Sutjiadi and Rohan Bopanna 6-3, 6-4 on Tuesday night in the semifinals. Afterward, Townsend, 28, told fans that she wouldn’t be on the court in front of them in Louis Armstrong Stadium if not for Young’s impact.
He was the top-ranked player at the junior level in 2005, a year after turning pro. The ring bearer at the wedding of Townsend’s parents had grown up to become one of the young stars of American men’s tennis.
“Him winning junior Wimbledon, junior Australian Open, going onto the tour, breaking out on tour and then coming home and being able to bring that accomplishment to us and being able to see that stuff, it was the closest that I ever had to being near anyone that was doing this at this level,” Townsend said.
“So when he asked me to play, I just felt like it was an honor to be able to close that book for him, because he kind of opened that for me in that sense.”
Townsend, like Young, would top the junior rankings, when she won the junior singles and doubles titles at the Australian Open in 2012 and became the first American girl in three decades to hold the year-end No. 1 junior world ranking.
But both endured tough times on tour in the years that followed.
Young climbed to his career high of No. 38 in 2012, but a 17-match losing streak would send him tumbling. That same year, The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. Tennis Association coaches decided that the then-16-year-old Townsend needed to work on her fitness, sending her back to their Florida training center rather than cover her expenses to play in one of its tournaments.
But even as they struggled, Young and Townsend were providing hope to others. Townsend said she recently ran into Young at the club where they used to play, and it was emotional seeing so many Black kids who looked up to her like she looked up to Young.
“It’s amazing because it really shows that we’re trending in the right direction,” Townsend said. “And for me personally, in my experience, seeing that and being able to have the visual representation, to see something that looked like me, that acted like me or that I could relate to in some shape or form, gave that little bit of hope that you could do it, too.”
Townsend’s career has been on the rise since she returned to the tour in 2022 after giving birth to her son. She has climbed into the top 50 in singles and is even better in doubles, winning the Wimbledon title in July with Katerina Siniakova. They are seeded third in Flushing Meadows and have reached the semifinals.
Young never reached the level of stardom that some predicted. He hasn’t won a match on tour since 2021 and doesn’t even play on it anymore, having switched to pro pickleball.
“Hindsight is 20/20, it didn’t exactly get to where I wanted it to be,” Young said of his career. “But how I choose to look at it is, if you asked the 10, 12-year-old me about the career I’ve had, he’d be super excited and pumped about it.”
The USTA gave them a wild card into the mixed doubles draw for Young’s farewell and the duo has made the most of it. With two lefties on the court, they are a tricky team to play, forcing opponents to seek angles that are more easily found against righties.
Young actually is a righty, using that hand to eat and write, but plays tennis left-handed. Townsend also began playing with her right hand, mimicking her older sister, before training under Donald Young Sr. She struggled to keep her balance while moving, and Illona Young recommended she try playing lefty, like her son.
“So from that point we started drilling everything on the left side,” Townsend said, “and here we are.”
On Thursday, she and Young will play the No. 3-seeded team of Italians Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, a chance to add a memory to all the ones they already share.
“So either way it goes I’m really excited and happy, again, I can share it with a person really close like family,” Young said.
