DONALD YOUNG Youngest ITF World Junior Champion

Sixteen-year-old Donald Young became the youngest player ever to claim the year-end No. 1 ITF Junior ranking on Thursday. With the aid of his HEAD Liquidmetal Radical MP, Young advanced to the quarterfinal round of the 59th annual Orange Bowl International Championships in Key Biscayne, Fla., earning enough points to secure the top position for 2005.

The record was previously claimed by Richard Gasquet of France in 2002, also a HEAD player and ranked among the top-20 best players in the world on the pro circuit today.

Young’s stellar 2005 season boasts several milestones: In addition to being the youngest ITF Junior Champion, Young also captured the U.S. National Championship title in the boys 18s division and shattered three records at the Australian Open in Melbourne, Australia, where he became the youngest boy to win a Junior Grand Slam, the youngest boy to reach number one in the history of ITF junior rankings and the first African-American boy to be ranked No. 1 in the world.

HEAD looks back to a long partnership with Donald Young who went through the HEAD Team Elite Program. HEAD Team Elite is a global sponsorship program with an international long-term strategy. It is a fascinating pool of 2.500 promising young athletes between 11 and 18 years that is created for bringing up the next generation of top tennis players. It is highly supported by Headquarters, but primarily implemented in a decentralized manner by incorporating HEAD subsidiaries, HEAD distributors and HEAD retailers.