Donald Young’s Losing Streak Hits 17 Straight Matches: “Obviously It Hasn’t Been Great” [Video]

Donald Young’s prolific losing streak is now up to 17 after getting beat today by Jesse Levine 64, 76 in the first round at the Cincinnati Masters 1000.

Young’s last win on the ATP tour came against Grigor Dimitov 8-6 in the third set tiebreaker at Memphis in February. The 23-year-old former junior No. 1 dropped his next match to Michael Russell and has since lost in the first round at 16 straight events including today. And of his 17 losses, 10 have come in straight sets.

Young is next scheduled to play at Winston Salem next week before the US Open. After starting the year on an upswing ranked 39, Young has crashed to No. 80 with US Open fourth round points to defend starting two weeks.

Witht he plummet, the lefty says he’s made a recent coaching move hiring Roger Smith, and he admits his racquet changes last off-season didn’t serve him well. Last month Young returned to his Prince racquets, the same frames he had success with in 2011.

“Hindsight is 20-20,” Young said today. “The rackets – I probably shouldn’t have messed around with because I was playing so well with it. As far as the coaching, the USTA helped out for a couple of weeks but through D.C. through the Open I was doing with my parents. Bangkok the USTA came and helped out. Now I have Roger Smith. He’s on board so hopefully it will turn around.”

The record for most consecutive losses on the ATP tour is 21 held by Vince Spadea during the 1999-2000 season. Gary Donnelly once lost 20 straight matches.