Eugenie Bouchard congratulates fellow tennis player-turned-pickleball pro Donald Young on reaching US Open mixed doubles final with Taylor Townsend
American tennis pro Donald Young is on the cusp of his maiden Major title after reaching the mixed doubles final at the 2024 US Open with Taylor Townsend. Canada's Eugenie Bouchard congratulated the American on winning his semifinal in New York.
Young, 35, is one of many tennis players to turn to professional pickleball of late. In fact, US Open 2024 is his last professional tennis tournament. Pairing up with Townsend, Young reached the final after defeating Rohan Bopanna and Aldila Sutjiadi in the semifinals.
The American duo came out with a plan and executed it to perfection: targeting Sutjiadi with long rallies and drawing net errors from Bopanna. They took the win comfortably, finishing 6-3, 6-4. Both Young and Townsend reached a Grand Slam final in mixed doubles for the first time in their careers.
Eugenie Bouchard, who, like Young, has recently taken up pickleball, took to Instagram to congratulate the American duo on their success at the US Open.
"Yessss," she wrote excitedly, sharing the a post about the duo reaching the final on her story.
Young and Townsend have been in great touch at the 2024 US Open: they've lost just one set en route to the final. The duo has defeated Andres Molteni-Asia Muhammad, Hugo Nys-Nadiia Kichenok, defending champions Harri Heliovaara, and Rohan Bopanna-Alidila Sutjiadi so far. They will now face third-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori in the title contest on September 5.
Donald Young has reached a Grand Slam final once before
The mixed doubles final at the 2024 US Open will be the second Major final for Donald Young. He competed in the men's doubles final at the 2017 French Open. Young partnered with Mexican veteran Santiago Gonzalez at Roland Garros 2017, having endured a tough campaign to reach the final.
Young and Gonzalez defeated 14th-seeded Fabrice Martin-Daniel Nestor, Jonathan Erlich-Andre Sa, Nick Kyrgios-Jordan Thompson, fifth-seeded Bruno Soares-Jaime Murray, and Fernando Verdasco-Nenad Zimonjic to reach the summit clash. They finished runners-up after losing to Ryan Harrison and Michael Venus in the final.
Apart from the 2017 Roland Garros, the highlights of Young's career include an Australian Open Boy's singles title in 2005 and a runners-up finish in the singles competition at the 2011 Thailand Open, as well as the 2015 Delray Beach Open. He also finished runners-up in doubles at the 2015 Memphis Open, with Artem Sitak.
The 35-year-old reached a career-high singles ranking of World No. 38 in 2012 and a best doubles ranking of World No. 43 in 2017. Young recently became a professional pickleball player, while sporadically playing tennis on the ATP Tour and Challenger Tour.