Young's tennis light finally turned on

It is who he was as much as who he is now that makes Donald Young a compelling story in this year's U.S. Open. His back-to-back upsets of seeded players and advance to a Grand Slam fourth round for the first time seemed inevitable when Young was 15 and the world's best player in his age group. Just as they seemed thoroughly far-fetched only months ago.

Amid what-took-so-long questions and a suddenly souped-up profile, The New Donald suddenly is a high-def picture of what feels like a mini-revival in American tennis, muted a bit by Mardy Fish's fourth-round loss to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Monday.

Until the holiday weekend, there hadn't been as many as the four Yanks (Young, Fish, Andy Roddick, John Isner) so deep in the Open since 2003, the year Roddick won. Plus, 18-year-olds Jack Sock (who made the second round) and Ryan Harrison (who reached the second round last year) are on the horizon.

That Young must deal Wednesday with No. 4 Andy Murray suggests the real limits to the Americans' possibilities, and could precipitate another change of direction in Young's brief flip-flop career. But he still is only 22 and, as he has said repeatedly during the past week, "Everyone's light turns on at their own time."

Since turning pro in 2004, he got stuck playing minor-league challenger events (often losing in them), finally resolving at the end of last year to "try something different." He left his Atlanta home to spend a month at the U.S. Tennis Association's training center in Carson, Calif., training with the likes of Fish, Sam Querrey and even briefly with old champ Pete Sampras.

"We were doing two-a-days in the gym and two-a-day tennis, which is more than I've ever done before," said Young, accused by some tennis insiders of not being fit enough in recent years. His status with the establishment was shaky, and worsened when he grumbled profanely via Twitter about the USTA's failure to get him a wild card for this year's French Open.

"Yeah," Young acknowledged this week, "that wasn't the way it should have been. But things are smooth now, so hopefully we can move forward."

His victory over Murray at the Indian Wells tournament in March and a run to the Washington semifinals last month -- the farthest he ever has gone in a tour event -- invigorated him. Then, victories here over Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka and Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela, two experienced veterans who have been to the Open quarterfinals, got the tennis community considering a newfound maturity.

"It just seems like there's a sense of belief," Roddick said. "He's not focusing on what's going wrong, which is a big thing. I'm just really happy for him. I feel he's gotten a little bit of a bum rap because he does have a temper and has been reactionary with his words at times. But I think he is a sweet kid. He's shy. I think he might be coming out of that shell a little bit. I hope he is."

Young's fellow pros acknowledge his quickness and varied game and what Murray called "easy power. He can come and go in matches a little bit, but that's why he's flashy. He can get on a roll."

In those years when he was down so far that everything looked up to him, Young thought of quitting almost before he started. "I love tennis," he said. "It wasn't that I didn't love tennis. I just hated losing."

Finally, he decided to become "more open-minded" about what needed to be done. And he's on a roll.