Young Finally Wins as Roddick Closes Out Blake at Winston-Salem

By Erik Gudris

(August 20, 2012) -- Donald Young finally ended his protracted 17-match losing streak that started back in February with a first round win at the Winston-Salem Open in North Carolina.

Taking on Leonardo Mayer, Young dropped the first set but rallied to take the second set and went up an early break in the third. A misfired backhand from Mayer gave Young a 5-2 lead and he had no trouble serving out the match to love 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Young, who recently started working with coach Roger Smith, said he felt the pressure of winning a match before the U.S. Open but felt relieved that the streak was at an end.

Young next plays eighth seed Julien Benneteau.

No. 5 seed Andy Roddick took on his good friend James Blake in a night match that saw Blake go up an early break. But Blake played a horrible game while serving for the set at 5-4 and handed the break back to Roddick at love. A tiebreak capped of the set that saw Roddick fight off another set point before clinching the breaker.

The second set was just as close with Blake holding two set points on Roddick's serve at 5-4 only to see Roddick save them both. Another tiebreak was needed with Roddick jumping out to an early lead. Blake pulled to within 5-all before Roddick, on his second match point at 7-6 bombed a big serve Blake couldn't handle to win 7-6(6), 7-6(6).

Top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is set to face Thomaz Bellucci tomorrow after Bellucci defeated Marcos Baghdatis 7-5, 3-1 after Baghdatis retired with a lower back injury.

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)