Chandra Rubin left the door open. Slotted into hosting Friday\u2019s US Open women\u2019s doubles trophy presentation, the respected former American great kicked off the festivities at Arthur Ashe Stadium by inviting the runners-up to the mic on center court to speak freely. \u201cReally? I just get to talk?\u201d Taylor Townsend said. \u201cAs long as you want,\u201d Rubin warmly assured.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old American and world No 1 in doubles had already made quite the statement over the past fortnight. Well, three weeks if you count her run in the mixed doubles bracket with compatriot Ben Shelton in the US Open\u2019s newly extended format. After that came a dazzling unseeded run to the fourth round of the singles that saw her beat the Russian prodigy Mirra Andreeva for her third ever victory against a top-five player before taking a tough three-set loss to two-time slam champion Barbora Krejcikova, the American matching the career high-water mark she reached in 2019. Thirteen years after becoming tennis-famous as the world\u2019s No 1 junior, Townsend had became an overnight mainstream sensation: No player in New York gained more Instagram followers<\/a> in week one.<\/p>\n Seeded first in the doubles draw with 10-time grand slam winner Katerina Siniacova, Townsend didn\u2019t drop a set until third-seeded Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe beat them 6-4, 6-4 in a final that drew a surprisingly large and enthusiastic crowd for a women\u2019s doubles match. In her concession speech, Townsend \u2013 who ultimately came up short of bracketing the year with grand slam doubles titles after winning the Australian Open with Siniakova \u2013 called her US Open experience this year life-changing and \u201cmonumental\u201d. It wasn\u2019t hyperbole.<\/p>\n Ever since first picking up a racket at age four, Townsend has had to fight against her sport\u2019s stubbornly intractable biases. In a world that twee country club princess who can play against type, Townsend has always stood out as a Black woman from Chicago\u2019s rough and tumble South Side and considered less of a Big Babe than just plain big \u2013 reportedly playing at around 170lb even though just 5ft 7in. Famously, while the world\u2019s top-ranked junior at age 16, Townsend became a cultural flashpoint after her mother, a former college player, went public about the the United States Tennis<\/a> Association denying her travel funding for the 2012 US Open because coaches insisted she improve her \u201coverall fitness\u201d.<\/p>\n Taylor Townsend of the United States poses with the WTA Doubles World No 1 trophy ahead of this year\u2019s US Open on 21 August 2025. Photograph: Robert Prange\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Even as then player development chief Pat McEnroe made clear that the USTA was really looking out for Townsend\u2019s \u201clong-term health and development\u201d and was seemingly telegraphing to her peers that the federation prized fitness more than results, the controversy made Townsend something of a Rorschach test for cultural debates around race, body image and gender politics \u2013 with Townsend supporters quick to point that American greats Serena Williams and Lindsay Davenport were singled out for having \u201cunconventional\u201d body types, even as they piled up grand slam hardware. But though initially hyped as a Williams sister-level prospect \u2013 with coaching from Wimbledon finalist Zina Garrison, Donald Young Sr and Kamau Murray (the corner man for Sloane Stephens\u2019s 2018 US Open title) to recommend her \u2013 Townsend has had a mostly workaday career in her 13 years on WTA tour, going six years before cracking the top 75 on the singles chart.<\/p>\n And yet: The harder the tennis establishment tries to submit her as an example of what a pro tennis career shouldn\u2019t look like, the more fans seem to relate and take inspiration from her insurgent campaign. Since 2021, Townsend has pursued tennis while raising her son, Adyn \u2013 \u201ca great accident<\/a>,\u201d she called him recently. \u201cIt was a complete shocker to me to find out I was pregnant.\u201d After giving birth, Townsend challenged herself to step up her health and fitness commitments and wound up losing 80lb.<\/p>\n In an interview<\/a> earlier this year with the American sports journalist Jemele Hill, Townsend was candid about the dismal financial margins for players at her level, itemizing the litany of expenses that she has to cover just to put herself in position to earn a prize check. \u201cIn 2017 I played a pro tournament, and I made $66,\u201d Townsend recalled. \u201cMinus the $40 entry fee. I drove to the tournament. So I had $26 that I left a professional tournament with \u2013 and I was like, this can\u2019t even fill up my gas tank!\u201d<\/p>\n Where another player might connect with a sports apparel powerhouse to help fund their playing endeavors, Townsend was never approached to model and had to mix and match her own bought clothes instead. In fact, she\u2019s been doing it for so long that she just went ahead and launched own clothing line this year in collaboration with creative director Alexander John (of LA Gear and Puma fame) and debuted the \u201cTT\u201d-logoed fits at the French Open. (\u201cI\u2019m just taking things into my own hands,\u201d she said<\/a>.) Given the unfairness that she\u2019s experienced in tennis, it\u2019s in some ways inevitable that Townsend would become most known for her patch sponsorship deal with the law firm of Ben Crump<\/a> \u2013 the civil rights advocate who the Rev Al Sharpton fondly calls \u201cBlack America\u2019s attorney general\u201d.<\/p>\n Crump was among many fans who would make a civil rights case out of the altercation<\/a> that followed Townsend\u2019s straight sets second-round defeat of 25th-seeded Jelena Ostapenko. The Latvian, apparently bitter toward Townsend for not raising an apologetic hand after a net cord that turned a critical point in her favor, told the American she was \u201cdisrespectful\u201d, had \u201cno education\u201d and \u201cno class\u201d. On the internet, the snapshot image of Townsend calmly smiling on as Ostapenko melted down was seen emblematic of Black women\u2019s experiences with Karens on the job, while Ostapenko\u2019s \u201cno education\u201d comment triggered some refreshingly nuanced tennis commentary<\/a> about the insidious nature of racism the responsibility Ostapenko\u2019s has, as a privileged white woman in the sport, to recognize it anyway. \u201cOne of the worst things you could say to a Black tennis player\u201d is how Naomi Osaka described the \u201cno education\u201d line by Ostapenko, who ultimately walked the insults back without apologizing to Townsend directly. Townsend, for her part, didn\u2019t take the comments aboard and rejected the idea that they were racially coded despite the tournament-seizing controversy.<\/p>\n Taylor Townsend\u2019s altercation with Jelena Ostapenko became one of the defining episodes of this year\u2019s US Open. Photograph: Clive Brunskill\/Getty Images<\/p>\n In general, Townsend\u2019s graceful, easygoing nature has a habit of seeing her through. Before the Ostapenko incident, Townsend was winning over fans for the compassion she showed Danielle Collins during a physical and emotional match at this year\u2019s Cincinnati Open. After Collins unraveled during the match and marched off the court in tears following the straight sets loss, Townsend gathered up Collins\u2019s belongings and hoisted them up to her team<\/a> in a shocking display of sportsmanship. Collins later revealed that she was playing through the pain of a herniated disc, which pitched up her frustration.<\/p>\n Townsend\u2019s chill vibes and deft lefty game are what ultimately led Siniacova to recruit her for doubles in May 2024 \u2013 and the partnership has produced Townsend\u2019s best results and forged a strong bond between the two players. (After their post-match news conference in English, Townsend insisted on staying for a bit of Siniacova\u2019s Czech interviews and having her partner teach her a few words for thank you.) Their successful collaboration has also produced some genuinely delightful social media posts that have lent further insight into Townsend\u2019s winsome personality. After the pair won Wimbledon last year, Townsend\u2019s first major championship, she posted a video of herself staggering around her hotel room in the afterglow victory and bubbly. \u201cY\u2019all, I\u2019m fucked up,\u201d she beamed. \u201cThey kept bringing me champagne. I ain\u2019t drank in months.\u201d<\/p>\n After congratulating her vanquishers and moving on to thanking the locker room attendants and security guards in her US Open concession speech on Friday, Townsend reemerged inside of the main interview room at Arthur Ashe Stadium with a Honey Deuce in hand<\/a>, no worse for wear. As symbolic as it would have been to see her win a maiden US Open after her early trials in the USTA \u2013 with Althea Gibson looming large over this year\u2019s spectacle and Rubin, the first Black woman to win a grand slam doubles title after Gibson, on court \u2013 Townsend will totally take this result. Between her split of the $500,000 runner-up check (which should cover a fair number of travel expenses and fuel-ups) and the Tiffany finalists plate (which she was thinking might make a posh charcuterie platter), Townsend has much to savor about her finest ever year on tour to date.<\/p>\n But as it turns out there was an even bigger consolation prize that Townsend didn\u2019t expect to receive during her time in Queens: statements of respect delivered by her counterparts at random. \u201cI really feel like the type of tennis that I played and just the way that the person and the player that I am now really gained a lot of respect in the locker room,\u201d she said. \u201cEven Novak [Djokovic] said something to me. Jannik [Sinner] said something to me \u2013 like, \u2018Hey, you played really well. Keep going.\u2019 Everyone was watching. The biggest thing that has changed for me, too, is just being able to truly show up as myself publicly and for people to be able to receive that as it is. It\u2019s very liberating and freeing.\u201d<\/p>\n