For Townsend and Young, the US Open mixed doubles final is a family affair

NEW YORK -- Taylor Townsend owes her creative left-handed game, which earned her junior Grand Slam titles and a Wimbledon doubles title, to the coaching of Donald Young's parents.

On Thursday, Townsend has a chance to use that magical left hand to write Young a storybook ending to his professional tennis career. 

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Townsend and Young will face Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori in the US Open mixed doubles final on Thursday. It will be Young's last professional tennis match, as he is set to officially retire from the ATP Tour. The American duo is into the mixed final a decade after making the semifinals in New York 10 years ago.  

"This is the decision and I'm happy with it," Young said. "Hopefully we go one more. It'd be a really a dream come true and kind of a storybook ending for me. 

"So either way it goes, I'm really excited and happy that I can share it with a person really close, like family." 

Young was a two-time junior Slam champion and reached a career-high No.38 on the PIF ATP Rankings. His mother and father ran a tennis center in Atlanta, Georgia, and they coached Townsend into the sport. 

"He's the reason that I felt like it was possible because I could do this," Townsend said as she reached out to touch Young's arm. "He'd come back after winning Junior Wimbledon or Junior Australian Open and I'm like, 'Let me see your trophy, let me touch it.'

"So to be able to just have that close to you or even to be able to see it, you don't know how powerful that is, and you don't know what doors that opens up for anybody. So we're just going to keep doing our thing."

Seven years older than Townsend, Young recalled the days of playing Monopoly with Townsend and her sister, laughing at the memory of Townsend flipping the table in competitive anger.

Townsend revealed it was Young's parents who gave her the left-handed game that has become her hallmark. Townsend is naturally ambidextrous, but with a family of right-handers, followed everyone's lead and started playing tennis with her right hand. But Donald Young Sr. noticed something was wrong.

"I couldn't stay upright, I kept falling," Townsend said. "Like if I would move sideways or backwards, I'd always trip and fall.

"One day his mom was like, put the racquet in your left hand. I was pissed because then I had to go down and hit with the four-year-olds, and they sucked. So I was mad because I can keep rallies, and now I keep whiffin' the ball, I couldn't even make contact."

But Young's mother, Illona, wouldn't relent. 

"They ran me through the similar drills that I would do, going backwards for an overhead or moving sideways and I wouldn't fall," Townsend said. "So I guess something in my brain wasn't computing with my body and it just wasn't working. 

"So from that point, we started drilling everything on the left side. And here we are." 

It has been an outstanding season in all facets of the game for Townsend. This year, the 28-year-old surged into the Top 50 for the first time in singles. Just last month, she made her first WTA 1000 quarterfinal in Toronto. After winning her first major doubles title at Wimbledon, she is ranked No.8 in doubles and made the US Open semifinals with Siniakova. 

"Everything I was doing for me was the first time we were learning it," Young said. "Now, Taylor having won [a Grand Slam], someone else can ask her questions and she can answer it in a way that is not just theory, it's actually experience. That's pretty cool."

Townsend and Young have brought the energy and the show to the mixed doubles competition. Knowledgable tennis fans have flocked to their matches to give Young one final sendoff, while also getting a chance to celebrate Townsend's success. 

Charismatic as ever, Townsend has been happy to reward the fans with a show. 

"I bring flair, flavor and something that a lot of people don't have," Townsend said. "So when I'm on the court, people show up. I can't speak for everybody, but I know for me, the people who rock with me, rock with me hard. The supporters that I have when I'm on the court, whether it's singles, doubles, mixed doubles, it doesn't matter. It's always a great turnout. 

"It takes a special person to be able to influence culture and the way people see the game and make it feel cool and relatable, and I think I'm that person. So I just try and be myself and make it as fun and entertaining as possible while still being authentically who I am.

"I don't want to toot my own horn, but I kind of do. I just feel like I'm that one."