Donald Young booked a spot in the quarterfinals of the Swiss Indoors Basel with a 6-2, 7-6(6) victory over Kevin Anderson on Thursday afternoon. Young broke the big man’s serve four times before advancing in one hour and 37 minutes.
The American got off to an inauspicious start by dropping serve in the first game of the match, but he more than made up for it with breaks of Anderson in the second, fourth, and eighth games.
Young also had to battle back from a deficit in set two. The world No. 49 delivered an immediate break-back by winning a four-deuce game with Anderson serving at 3-2. Both players held the rest of the way to a tiebreaker. Young missed two match points at 6-4 and 6-5 before converting his third chance at 7-6.
By ranking (Anderson is 12th), it was Young’s third best win of 2015. He had previously upset No. 6 Tomas Berdych in Montreal and No. 11 Gilles Simon at the U.S. Open.
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“I returned really well today,” he assessed. “I was returning well from the beginning. I just competed hard today. I played him in Memphis and I took some notes. For the most part on the big points [he served] where I had written down.
“I haven’t played as much as some of these guys (in 2015), so I’m a little fresher. I would love to finish in the top 50, or even more if this (tournament) goes well. Next year I would love to [win] my first title and make a push for the top 20.”
Next up or Young is fellow American Jack Sock, who defeated another countryman–John Isner–via a 7-6(5), 6-3 scoreline on Thursday. The last time two Americans reached the quarterfinals of this Basel event was 1994 (Patrick McEnroe and Jared Palmer).
Sock wins the first set in style:
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Surprisingly, this will be only their second career meeting. They previously collided at the 2013 Winnetka Challenger, where Sock prevailed 6-3, 6-4.
From different cities, Sock and Steve Johnson seem to be waging an anything you can do I can do better battle. Both players made final appearances last week–Sock in Stockolm and Johnson in Vienna.
Now Johnson is also through to a quarterfinal this week, as he punched a ticket to the last eight of the Valencia Open on Thursday. The world No. 33 rolled over Martin Klizan 6-3, 6-4 in round one before upsetting No. 2 seed Feliciano Lopez 6-4, 7-6(3).
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I am glad to see this write up acknowledging the good results from some of the American men now. I am really happy to see Sock, Johnson and Young doing well.