"Why you hittin such bad shots, dawg?"

Lately I've been wondering what happened to Donald Young. Young ripped up the junior circuit, winning everything in sight, and big things were projected for him. He took a number of wildcards straight into ATP events, and learned the hard way what separates the men from the boys. An 0-9 record destroyed his confidence and sent him into a tailspin that he only began to recover from last year.

But this year? Neither hide nor hair of The Kid. I didn't see his name in the Australian Open, or even when I looked for him in the qualifying. Ditto for the French. With Wimbledon though, he has reemerged. He popped up on Day 1 of Qualifying, which isn't even held at Wimbledon - it's at a club in Roehampton. As reported on Wimbledon's site:

Donald missed the French Open to play Challenger events to earn more points. He wants to qualify directly for the US Open on his own merit, not as a wild card. But he has made an exception for Wimbledon for several reasons, because grass court tennis is suited to his game, he has had success here before and because Wimbledon is the tournament everyone cares about.

"If you do well here you can make a name for yourself. Even people who don’t watch tennis, they know about Wimbledon."

Unfortunately Donald lost 6-4, 6-4, a nod to the title of the post (my buddy Jacobs and I heard Donald utter the line to himself while watching him lose at the US Open). Young's conqueror was Alejandro Falla, a journeyman from Columbia.

Young, who turns 20 next month, was despondent after losing the first set but picked up his confidence early in the second when he had four points to break Falla's serve and lead 4-2.

But Falla, ranked 20 places lower than the American, battled furiously to escape losing his serve and once he had held for 3-3 he began, slowly, to look the stronger player.

At 4-all, Young faced five break points and although he saved four of them the fifth went Falla's way with a forehand cross court service return winner. Falla held to 15 for victory and a disconsolate Young was left with a long and lonely walk to the locker room.