They were tennis prodigies, skinny little kids with white shorts and huge shots seemingly destined for greatness. But there seemed little doubt four years ago which of the two was on the fast track to success.
At 14 and a budding world junior champion, Donald Young became the youngest American male tennis pro ever when he signed a four-year contract with IMG in October 2003.
At 18, Ryan Heller was a highly respected player nationally and a state finalist for Glenbrook North High School after winning the title as a junior the year before.
While Young was drawing comparisons to John McEnroe, Heller, with strong encouragement from his parents, accepted a tennis scholarship to Michigan.
A year earlier, Young had left elementary school in Hyde Park after completing 7th grade because, his mother Illona said, the school told them it would fail him if he missed more than 23 days. With travel and training taking up much of his time, his parents decided he would be home-schooled and Illona, who has a degree in education, would be his teacher.
The family soon moved to Atlanta, where Donald’s parents — both teaching pros — opened a tennis academy.
“I would have loved to have Donald play high school tennis,” Donald Young Sr. said. “I would love to have Donald play maybe a year of college tennis. But the bottom line is that Donald was not blessed to come from doctors and lawyers. We needed help to give him the opportunity to fulfill his dream.”
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At 14, Heller could have packed up and brought his game to a warmer climate and any number of famous tennis academies, but both he and his parents wanted him to attend traditional high school.
“A lot of people don’t even believe in high school tennis,” said Ryan’s father, Jay. “Pros say that because they make money. Kids are told they’re better than high school, but they’re missing what high school has to offer.”
Heller knew about kids who left home and he wasn’t interested in doing that.
“You’re cut off from all social aspects of life when your main focus is tennis all day,” he said. “When I think of parents who pushed their kids, [the kids] seemed to burn out because it’s not what they really wanted to do.”
Professional learning curve
Over the next few years, Young continued to win junior tournaments but struggled against bigger and stronger players in pro events, where he often accepted wild-card invitations. His parents bristled at criticism that he turned pro too early, and at the high expectations placed on him.
“I only wanted sponsorships initially (which he got from Nike and Head) to help with travel expenses, for him to be able to support himself until he went through his follies and grew up,” Young Sr. said. “He’s going to have his ups and downs, I just wanted him to enjoy himself. But everyone else said he should be No. 1 at 15, 16, [that] everything needs to happen today.”
Still, he said with his son’s ability to “cross populations” as an African-American teenager, he expected Donald to attract more endorsement opportunities.
“For example, Donald loves Popsicles,” he said. “Maybe have his image on XBox. It doesn’t always need to be money.”
Now three months short of his 18th birthday, Young is ranked 430th in the world. His best result in an ATP event — and the first set he won in an ATP event — came in a 6-4, 3-6, 0-6, 1-6 loss to 23rd-ranked Serbian Novak Djokovic last fall in the U.S. Open, where Young had earned a wild-card spot by winning his second consecutive USTA national 18-and-under boys title.
It was significant progress. Earlier last year, he accepted another wild card for a tour event in Miami and was double-bageled by 97th-ranked Carlos Berlocq of Argentina, who was blanked himself by James Blake in the next round.
Over the last year, Young has changed course, playing the lower-level pro events called Futures and Challengers. Last week, he won a futures singles and doubles event in Little Rock, Ark. Another highlight was being invited to serve as a hitting partner for the U.S. Davis Cup team, where Blake and Andy Roddick practiced with him and extended open invitations for him to come to their homes to train.
This, too, marked progress. After a third-round loss in a Wimbledon boys singles match last summer, Young uncharacteristically flung his racket and told a reporter who asked if he had friends: “Everybody else does. Not me. Guys don’t want to hit with me, they’re not interested in going to dinner with me.”
Blake had characterized Young as being hard to approach but had words of encouragement in Winston-Salem, N.C., site of the Davis Cup.
“When I said that before, I felt like he was kind of isolated,” Blake said. “He wasn’t maybe as outgoing to get to know some of the other players right away. I guess looking back, any 17-year-old probably would be a little bashful around some of the top players in the world.”
Time to mature
Young’s father said he wants his son to progress naturally, to play on whatever level he wants to play as long as he keeps both his match total, and hopefully his confidence, up.
“My goal is by the U.S. Open, he can be near the 200s,” Young Sr. said.
In the meantime, the Youngs are still careful with their son. He trains occasionally at the IMG-sponsored Bollettieri Academy but is not allowed to travel there — or to tournaments — alone. Since earning his high school diploma, he said in a recent interview, he spends most days practicing, watching TV and playing video games with his friends. He has a Hummer but is not allowed to drive it yet, lest he be “labeled.” Instead, he drives an older car.
Young Sr. said his son’s career has been a learning process for him, and that the USTA should do the same in handling future prodigies.
In other words, tennis should use Young in the same way Ryan Heller has used tennis.
Different kind of training
At Michigan, Heller became team co-captain his junior year and is a tri-captain this season, playing wherever they need him. He helped lead the Wolverines to an upset victory over Illinois on April 6. Of even more importance to him and his family, he will graduate in May and begin a management training program at First Midwest Bank. Though he wasn’t a business major (his degree will be in psychology), his future employer liked that he was a college athlete, was a team player and had leadership skills.
“Ryan is the quintessential college player,” Michigan coach Bruce Berque said. “He’s a great athlete, does well in school, thrives in a team environment. He’s fun to watch because he plays with such a passion. You have a good sense when he’s on the court that he is not only doing it for himself but for his teammates and his school.”
Heller, 22, could try to scratch out a living on the ATP tour after graduation, but more and more athletes like him don’t see it as worth the risk.
“A lot of people have the dream of going on and becoming a professional tennis player, but they don’t know what it takes, a lot of time, a lot of money,” he said. “A lot of people turn out basically to be a bust and then they have nothing to fall back on. You see it happening a lot with baseball players who go right to the minor leagues out of high school and then they’re stuck there. My main focus out of all of this was getting the best education I could and I knew that by using my tennis, I could.”
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Until recently, a sign posted just off the Dundee west exit off the Edens Expressway told travelers that they were entering Northbrook, Home of Ryan Heller, the 2003 Illinois State tennis champion.
The sign is now in the Heller’s basement but, Ryan said, with a laugh, “People still come up to me, friends, new people I meet and say ‘I saw your sign.’ It doesn’t bother me people around the world might not know my name. It’s not something I need or want.”
He will miss tennis, he admits, because he still dearly loves it, but he will find time to play and in whatever he does, ways to compete.
Observers believe Donald Young, who has grown over the last three years from 5 feet 10 inches, 140 pounds to 6-1, 155, still might meet those expectations as the next great American player.
At this point, however, it’s only a guess.
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