{"id":148224,"date":"2025-09-11T05:25:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T05:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/148224\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T05:25:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T05:25:09","slug":"taylor-townsend-proposes-two-changes-she-would-love-to-see-made-to-tennis-we-need-to-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/148224\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Townsend proposes two changes she would love to see made to tennis, ‘we need to progress’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Taylor Townsend made plenty of headlines in New York, competing in the mixed doubles, doubles, and singles.<\/p>\n

After losing in the quarterfinals of the mixed doubles alongside Ben Shelton<\/a>, Townsend turned her attention to the singles, where she beat Antonia Ruzic in round one.<\/p>\n

It was in the second round that the American found herself embroiled in controversy, as Jelena Ostapenko confronted Townsend at the net<\/a>, claiming she had \u2018no respect\u2019 and \u2018no education\u2019 after their match.<\/p>\n

\"JelenaPhoto by Clive Brunskill\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Moving past the incident, Townsend<\/a> reached the fourth round of the singles, losing out to Barbora Krejcikova in a three-set thriller.<\/p>\n

In doubles, Townsend qualified for another Grand Slam final, as she and Katerina Siniakova finished as runners-up to Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe.<\/p>\n

After an all-action tournament, where her profile grew significantly, Townsend has now been asked what changes she would like to see made to tennis.<\/p>\n

Taylor Townsend wants to see the \u2018expectation of etiquette\u2019 in tennis changed<\/p>\n

Appearing as a guest on \u2018The Pivot\u2019 podcast, Townsend picked two things she\u2019d like to see changed in tennis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think first would be the expectation of etiquette. Not sportsmanship. Sportsmanship is honoring your opponent and respecting what they have got going on and what they are trying to do. You are honoring the sport,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut beyond that, we can compete. We can be rough. We can talk. We can do whatever.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like in tennis there is this expectation of etiquette and being prim and proper, and I have to apologise even if I don\u2019t mean it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would change that. And it\u2019s funny because I love Ben Shelton to death, he is like a little brother, and he is dating Trinity Rodman, and she talked about not understanding this.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is her first introduction into tennis, and she\u2019s dating Ben, who is one of the most electric players on the Tour when it comes to not only showing emotion but the celebrations and all the things, where it\u2019s just being able to show our culture but still in a classy way, by being himself.<\/p>\n

\"BenPhoto by Mert Alper Dervis\/Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Trinity was like I don\u2019t understand why you guys are mad about a celebration? In any other sport, we have celebrations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn football, you have a new celebration at every touchdown! I look at them like that\u2019s fire! And even in basketball and baseball, this is a part of the culture. Why can it not be in tennis?<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I would change that. Just in terms of opening people\u2019s minds and just getting rid of the expectation of people to act a certain way because this is how it\u2019s always been.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to progress and evolve. This is not what it is anymore; we are not in the 50s and 60s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Townsend\u2019s second change focused more on doubles, where she is currently ranked number one in the world.<\/p>\n

\"TaylorPhoto by Robert Prange\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second thing I would change, and I feel I am really blessed to be in this position, is being able to change the mentality around doubles and people feeling as though it\u2019s less of a sport, that it\u2019s not as hard, that it\u2019s not challenging. People think that it\u2019s easy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel I am really blessed to be in the position I am, being number one in the world, and I am very vocal and a huge advocate for doubles and respecting the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s okay that it\u2019s not singles. That\u2019s fine. But what I say is that it requires a different set of skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Townsend is the world number one in women\u2019s doubles and has two major titles to her name.<\/p>\n

Taylor Townsend\u2019s record in Grand Slam finals<\/p>\n

The American star has played seven Grand Slam finals across mixed doubles and women\u2019s doubles, winning two and losing five.<\/p>\n

Grand Slam finalDisciplinePartnerOpponentsResult2022 US OpenDoublesCaty McNallyBarbora Krejcikova\/Katerina SiniakovaLoss2023 French OpenDoublesLeylah FernandezHsieh Su-wei\/Wang XinyuLoss2024 WimbledonDoublesKaterina SiniakovaGabriela Dabrowski\/Erin RoutliffeWin2024 US OpenMixed doublesDonald Young Sara Errani\/Andrea VavassoriLoss2025 Australian OpenDoublesKaterina SiniakovaHsieh Su-wei\/Jelena OstapenkoWin2025 French OpenMixed doublesEvan KingSara Errani\/Andrea VavassoriLoss2025 US OpenDoublesKaterina SiniakovaGabriela Dabrowski\/Erin RoutliffeLossTaylor Townsend\u2019s record in Grand Slam finals<\/p>\n

Looking to add to her major tally, Townsend will return to Grand Slam action at the Australian Open, which begins on Monday, January 12, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taylor Townsend made plenty of headlines in New York, competing in the mixed doubles, doubles, and singles. After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,24842,428,654],"class_list":{"0":"post-148224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-taylor-townsend","10":"tag-tennis","11":"tag-wta"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}