Advertisement

American Donald Young’s U.S. Open run ends with loss to No.5 Stan Wawrinka

Donald Young, left, and Stan Wawrinka meet at the net after their 2015 US Open match.

Donald Young, left, and Stan Wawrinka meet at the net after their 2015 US Open match.

(Andrew Gombert / EPA)
Share

When it began, Donald Young was a man without shoes. When it ended, he was a man still without a Grand Slam quarterfinal on his resume.

But the 2015 U.S. Open still will be looked upon fondly by the American left-hander, who came back twice from two sets down to win matches, left with a check for $225,000 for his fourth-round advance, and felt pieces of his game finally starting to fall into place, even at age 26 and after 11 years on the pro tennis tour.

“This was a good step in the right direction for me,” Young said.

The right direction ended in a Monday match on Arthur Ashe Stadium court, with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 defeat at the hands of Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka, the fifth-ranked player in the world.

Advertisement

“Stan’s a quality player,” Young said. “He’s won two Slams, including the French this year. He has competed at the highest level, consistently.”

Not only that, but Wawrinka didn’t have to go looking for a pair of shoes before his match. When Young finished his previous match, he returned to his locker to find it cleaned out. Shoes, clothing, everything gone. The first reaction was that he’d been robbed. Later, after a pair of shoes had been hunted down for him, he found out the truth.

“Apparently, someone said I was out of the tournament,” Young said, “and so the guys [locker room attendants] thought I went home. They were taking some souvenirs.”

He said everything was eventually returned.

“They magically appeared back in the locker,” Young said.

Second-seeded Simona Halep, No. 20 Victoria Azarenka and No. 26 Flavia Pennetta made their way into the women’s quarterfinals, with Halep’s match the most hotly contested.

The Romanian beat 24th-seeded Sabine Lisicki of Germany, 6-7 (6), 7-5, 6-2.

For both women, the hot and humid weather, as well as their serves, created problems. Halep had to call a trainer to treat a sore left thigh and finished the match with heavy tape on it. Lisicki fought cramps throughout.

After the second set, in a match that would eventually go 2 hours 38 minutes, the women’s tour heat rule was enforced and both players were allowed to leave the court for 10 minutes.

Advertisement

Each player double faulted six times.

Azarenka, who has won two Australian Opens but slipped in the rankings the last few years, outfought 29-year-old U.S. player Varvara Lepchenko, 6-3, 6-4, and sounded upbeat about whatever is ahead for her in this tournament.

“I could see the improvement already from [the work] I have done since Toronto to here,” Azarenka said. “I think it’s just kind of on a roll of progression.”

She played with tape on both of her biceps, and she knew afterward that she would be asked about it, because it looked like somebody trying to cover up new tattoos.

“You want the cool story or the other one?” she joked.

Then she explained that she had an allergic reaction to some sort of material in some of her clothing.

“So I put tape around it so it doesn’t bother me,” she said.

Pennetta, a 33-year-old Italian who got as high as No. 10 six years ago and once made it to a U.S. Open semifinal — in 2013, when she lost to Azarenka — eliminated 22nd-seeded Australian Samantha Stosur, the 2011 U.S. Open champion.

Pennetta had two break points and converted both in a 6-4, 6-4 victory. Stosur had four and didn’t convert any.

Advertisement

“My big weapons,” Stosur said, “didn’t seem to be weapons against her.”

bill.dwyre@latimes.com

Twitter: @DwyreLATimes

Advertisement