Donald Young *w/picture*
www.usta.com
Young No. 1 in ITF World Junior Rankings
1/30/05 1:22 PM
Seeded No. 2, Young defeated No. 1 Sun-Yong Kim of Korea in the boys' singles final at the Australian Open, 6-2, 6-4, to become the youngest boy to win a junior Grand Slam title and the youngest boy to reach No. 1 in the history of the ITF World Junior Rankings.
** At the age of 15 years, 6 months and 7 days, he became the youngest boy to win a Junior Grand Slam since David Skoch of the Czech Republic won Wimbledon in 1992 at the age of 15 years and 8 months.
** On Monday, he'll become the youngest No. 1 in the rankings since Richard Gasquet of France who took over the top spot at the age of 16 years and 83 days in 2002.
** Donald is the first American to win the Australian Open boys' title and first to be ranked No. 1 in world since Andy Roddick accomplished both feats in 2000.
** Young and his partner, Thiemo de Bakker of the Netherlands, lost to Kim and Chu-Huam Ye of Chinese Taipei in the boys' doubles final yesterday, 6-3, 6-4.
** Young is the first African-American boy to be ranked No. 1 in the world in singles.
Selected quotes from Donald Young after winning the Australian Open boys' singles title:
On becoming the youngest No. 1-ranked junior and the youngest junior Grand Slam winner:
"I'm really excited actually. I really don't know what to say. Been wanting to win this tournament for a while and it happened, so I'm really excited."
On how his game has evolved over the past six to eight months:
"I think it's confidence more now. I feel like I'm capable of playing with the players and not they're all bigger. They're all bigger pretty much than me anyway, but I feel like I can play with them and they're a little closer to my age. (I'm) about to be 16 this year. Some of them, they were like 18. But I just had a lot more respect for the ones last year. Now I feel like I'm up there with the rest of them."
On taking the next step to the top of the pro ranks:
"Obviously, (it's) a big gap because they're out there getting to the main Slam finals. But when I get bigger and older hopefully, I can be up there in a couple years or try at least. If I'm playing the same players. Most of the players I'll probably play will be in the Juniors or some of the ones that are out there now, they'll be getting a little older."
On what it means to be No. 1:
"A lot. I've wanted to be No. 1 since I started playing ITFs. But it's here now, so I don't really know. It's kind of like no feeling to it. I thought it would be this awesome, but I thought it would (even) be a lot (more). It just feels like nothing now. But I'm excited about it. Maybe tomorrow when I actually see No. 1 by my name, then I'll realize it."