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Donald Young and the goliaths

Young has been coming up big the past week against players that d

ByVan Sias

Published Feb 22, 2017

If you’re 6’10” or above, the one person you might not want to see right now across the net is Donald Young.

On Tuesday in Delray Beach, Young beat No. 2 seed Ivo Karlovic in straight sets in the first round. It was a rematch of the 2015 Delray final, but this time it was the American that came away with his first-ever win over Karlovic.

"He got me in some important ones..." Young said on Tuesday. "I was really able to handle my serve. and put a few returns in play in the tiebreakers and put a little bit of pressure on him."

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Aside from notching his first win against Karlovic, it was the third win in a row for Young against the game’s true giants.

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Last week in Memphis, the 6-foot Young defeated Reilly Opelka, who’s pushing 7 feet, in the second round.

He then followed that one up with his first-ever win against another American, the 6’10” John Isner.

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Young’s Memphis run ended against eventual champ Ryan Harrison in the semifinals, but he was able to bounce back pretty quickly in Delray Beach.

"I'm feeling good. I was actually two points away from feeling awful in Memphis in the first round ..." Young said. "Those kind of 50/50 matches that you can come out on top in the end can change your whole scope and set the tone from there."

Perhaps the most surprising statistic in Young’s streak is that he’s won all five tiebreakers—often the domain of the big server—that he’s played against Opelka, Isner and Karlovic.

He's done so by protecting his own serve well, a necessity against players capable of delivering rockets. Young knows the aces are coming, but he’s been able to remain focused on his returns, too.

"I just tried to focus on my serve to get to that point in the breakers because before we hadn't even gotten a chance to get there [before]," Young said about Karlovic.

Next up for Young is fellow American Taylor Fritz. The two haven’t played before, but if Fritz is looking for something to hold on to going into the match, he can take heart in the fact that at least he’s not 6’10”.