Taylor Townsend capped a whirlwind week at the US Open with one of the performances of her career, upsetting No 5 seed Mirra Andreeva 7-5, 6-2 in 76 minutes under the lights on Arthur Ashe Stadium to reach the fourth round in New York for the first time since 2019.
The 29-year-old American, ranked outside the top 100 in singles but world No 1 in doubles, surged past the teenage prodigy with fearless shot-making and constant pressure at the net. Townsend won 21 of 29 points when she came forward, struck 23 winners and kept her composure through a tense opening set before racing away in the second. It was her third career win over a top-10 opponent, joining victories over Simona Halep here in 2019 and Jessica Pegula in Rome last year.
Townsend, a former world No 1 junior who reinvented herself as a doubles star, has become one of the tournament’s central figures. That owes to her second-round win over Jelena Ostapenko, after which she revealed that the Latvian told her she had “no class” and “no education”. The comments, which Ostapenko justified as a reaction to Townsend not apologizing for a shot that hit the top of the net, prompted accusations of racism.
“I also want to say thank you to everyone who supported me over these last 48 hours,” Townsend told the crowd afterwards. “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 did that tonight. You guys saw the real Taylor Townsend tonight.”
The controversy tapped into a longer narrative. In 2012 the USTA asked Townsend, then the world’s top junior, to sit out the US Open junior event and denied her wild cards into the main draw or qualifying because of concerns over her fitness. The move, condemned by Serena Williams, Martina Navratilova and Lindsey Davenport, forced her mother to pay her way and ultimately led Townsend to leave the federation’s program to work with Zina Garrison.
That the same player once deemed “not ready” for Ashe could return years later to dismantle one of the sport’s most heralded prodigies on its biggest stage spoke to the depth of her resilience. Already a Wimbledon and Australian Open doubles champion alongside Katerina Siniakova, Townsend proved on Friday she still has the power to make her mark in singles, too.
For Andreeva, 18, the defeat brought an end to a season of near-metronomic consistency at the majors, where she had reached the second week at each of the first three slams of the year, including quarter-finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. The Russian, who claimed WTA 1000 titles at Dubai and Indian Wells earlier in 2025, was overpowered in the closing stages as Townsend’s confidence grew.
This is a developing story. More to follow.
