American Taylor Townsend saw her dazzling U.S. Open underdog run come to an unfortunate end against Czechia’s Barbora Krej\u010d\u00edkov\u00e1 in a fourth-round loss (6-1, 6-7, 3-6) on Sunday afternoon. <\/p>\n
Townsend appeared primed to book her first-ever spot in the U.S. Open quarterfinal, with a whopping eight match points<\/a> in the second set. But Krej\u010d\u00edkov\u00e1 would go on to save them all, making an incredibly resilient comeback as she clinched the final two sets.<\/p>\n Cameras caught Townsend’s understandably emotional reaction after losing the match. She packed her tennis bag and walked off the court to enthusiastic applause from the crowd, but she looked visibly distraught and appeared to wipe away tears with her towel.<\/p>\n An understandably emotional Taylor Townsend walks off the court in tears after her heartbreaking loss to Barbora Krej\u010d\u00edkov\u00e1. <\/p>\n She had eight match points this afternoon\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/YIAy9cZSAA<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Michael Charles (@MCharles317) August 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n Townsend defeated world No. 25 Je\u013cena Ostapenko in the second round\u2014which included a tense postgame confrontation with the Latvian<\/a>\u2014before taking down world No. 5 Mirra Andreeva in a stunning upset in the third round.<\/p>\n While Townsend bows out of this year’s U.S. Open perhaps wondering what could have been, she has every reason to hold her head up high following a truly impressive tournament run.<\/p>\n More on Sports Illustrated