Taylor Townsend notched arguably the biggest win of her career Friday, two days after the most talked-about incident of her career.
The American knocked off No. 5 seed Mirra Andreeva 7-5, 6-2 in the third round of the US Open, advancing to the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the second time of her career. It was the third win over a top-10 opponent of her career.
Advertisement
“Goddamn this feels good,” Townsend said after the match. “I’ve been putting in a lot of hard work.”
The 18-year-old Andreeva, who won Dubai and Indiana Wells this year, appeared to be in control early with a quick break to take a 2-0 lead in the first set, but Townsend dominated after that. Her serve and net game left no room for Andreeva, who at one point smacked her racket against her legs in frustration.
Andreeva finished the match with only six winners, to Townsend’s 23, and 25 unforced errors. The match did not feel particularly close after those early games as Townsend was more powerful and more mobile.
Advertisement
[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season]
Townsend also enjoyed a significant home-court advantage at Arthur Ashe Stadium, and not just because she was playing in her home country. Her post-match run-in with fellow doubles star Jelena Ostapenko on Wednesday, in which the Latvian allegedly told her she had no class or education following her 7-5, 6-1 win, generated widespread support around Flushing Meadows.
Taylor Townsend is having an eventful US Open. (Photo by Robert Prange/Getty Images)
(Robert Prange via Getty Images)
Ostapenko, who lost to Townsend’s pair in the women’s doubles final of the Australian Open then beat her in the semifinal at Wimbledon, defended herself by saying Townsend had been “very disrespectful” by not apologizing for winning on a dead net cord during play.
Advertisement
Townsend acknowledged both the partiality of the crowd, which was loudly rooting for her throughout the match, and the Ostapenko incident on Friday:
“I want to say thank you to everybody who supported me over these last 48 hours. It’s bigger than me. It’s about the message, it’s about the representation. It’s about being bold and being able to show up as yourself and I think that tonight you guys saw the real Taylor Townsend.”
Drama aside, the win is a huge step for Townsend as a singles player. Currently ranked No. 139 in the world by the WTA, Townsend has been hanging around in the singles world for more than a decade while rising through the doubles ranks. She’s never won a WTA singles title, or even reached the final of a tournament.
As she was dedicating the win to her coach and her son, Townsend reeled off the hard facts of her career off the top of her head. She hasn’t reached a Round of 16 since 2019. She hadn’t played a night match at Ashe since facing eventual champion Bianca Andreescu that same year. She spoke like a person who fully knew that a win would represent a new high point of her career, with even more progress to make.
Townsend is one of three American women to advance to the Round of 16 so far, alongside No. 4 seed Jess Pegula and the unseeded Ann Li. No. 3 seed Coco Gauff and No. 8 seed Amanda Anisimova both have matches Saturday.
Advertisement
Townsend will face fellow unseeded player Barbora Krejcikova in her next singles match Sunday for the first Grand Slam quarterfinal of her career. Before that, however, she has a morning match Saturday in the doubles bracket, where she and partner Kateřina Siniaková are the No. 1 seed.