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Even after he won the second-set tiebreaker, Young was on the
brink of defeat with Krajicek serving at 5-3 in the third set. A
Krajicek double fault helped Young break serve to stay alive,
and it began a run of four straight games for Young to wrap up
the victory over the qualifier.
"It was rough. I started off quite nervous. He was playing
well," Young said. "He was serving well, he was volleying, he
played a little different than I expected. He was keeping the
pressure on and making me come up with shots."
Young played his best tennis when he was on the brink of defeat.
"I didn't want to go out like that," said Young, who lives just
a few blocks from the BB&T Atlanta Open courts. "I didn't want
Monday to be my last day at the tournament and have to watch it
from my window."
Young's second-round opponent will be Tim Smyczek, an American
who also struggled before beating Brazil's Thiago Monteiro, a
lucky loser in qualifying, by a score of 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-3.
"I'm still trying to find my form a little bit," Smyczek said.
"I'm actually hitting the ball very well, so that's exciting. It
was good to get through this first hurdle here and give myself a
chance to play even better the next round."
American Jared Donaldson beat Australia's Sam Goth 6-2, 6-4 in
his opening match, which earned him a second-round match against
second-seeded Nick Kyrgios of Australia.
Top-seeded American John Isner received a first-round bye and
will face France's Adrian Mannarino in the second round.
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