Jared Donaldson’s summer of success continues at U.S. Open

There were hints along the way that this was possible for Jared Donaldson.

The teenager, who trains in Orange County with former touring pros Phil and Taylor Dent, reached the third round of a Masters Series tournament at Toronto in July, eventually losing to Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic.

That was merely the appetizer.

Donaldson came through qualifying at the U.S. Open and beat 12th-seeded David Goffin of Belgium in the first round. So often, it is difficult to follow up a big result, but Donaldson’s momentum continued on Thursday as he defeated Viktor Troicki of Serbia, 7-5, 6-3, 6-3, in 2 hours, 18 minutes in the second round.

Despite the result in Toronto and a solid summer, Donaldson has been under the radar compared with other young Americans. Still, it may have helped alleviate pressure on the 19-year-old.

“Honestly, whether or not I get attention, I’m still 120 in the world,” said Donaldson, who, in fact is 122nd, and will play the hard-serving Ivo Karlovic of Croatia in the third round.

“That’s not amazing. That’s not where I want to end up. I want to be top 10, top 5, No. 1. Eventually if I get to that ranking, I’ll have attention, almost too much attention. I just have to make sure I stay focused on my game, try not to let the outside factors dictate how I play or act.”

Before Donaldson joined forces with the Dents, he made an unusual, and productive, career decision, opting to train in Argentina. He was only 14 but was practicing with much older kids, and the venture gave him a “pro mentality” at an early age.

He also became a fan of Argentina’s famous soccer team, Boca Juniors, and had a funny story about another experience in South America.

He said one of his cultural takeaways was “the fact that in Argentina it took them two hours to drink a small coffee, where it takes 20 minutes for a big coffee in the United States.” .