Taylor Townsend capped a whirlwind 48 hours at the US Open with one of the finest performances of her career, upsetting No 5 seed Mirra Andreeva 7-5, 6-2 under the lights on Arthur Ashe Stadium to reach the fourth round in New York for the first time since 2019 and equal her best performance at any major.
The 29-year-old American, ranked outside the top 100 in singles but world No 1 in doubles, steadied herself after a nervy start and won four of five games to take the opening set. She then took complete control after getting broken early in the second, continuing to rush the net and ride the energy of a raucous crowd to win the last six games on the trot and close out a straight-sets win in 76 minutes. It was third career win over of a top-10 opponent, along with victories over Simona Halep here in 2019 and Jessica Pegula in Rome last year.
A former world No 1 junior from Georgia who reinvented herself as a doubles star, she won 21 of 29 points when she came forward and struck nearly four times as many winners (23) as Andreeva (six). “God damn, this feels so good,” she said afterwards. “Welcome to the show.”
Townsend has become one of the tournament’s central figures since 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 clipped the net cord, prompted accusations of racism.
“I also want to say thank you to everyone who supported me over these last 48 hours,” Townsend told the Ashe crowd. “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.”
Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka were among those who publicly came to Townsend’s defense over the past two days, with Osaka calling Ostapenko’s alleged comment “one of the worst things you can say to a Black tennis player in a majority-white sport”. After Friday’s triumph, Townsend said handling the fallout was easier than some might think. “It hasn’t been hard at all,” she said. “I said to my team, I’m made for this type of stuff. It wasn’t hard, because I stood in my truth. I didn’t have to defend anything that I said. What I said, I said, and I meant.
“When it’s time to do the job, it’s time to do the job. And that’s what I think is a testament to being professional, being able to block out what’s on the outside and when you step in the lines you handle business.”
Taylor Townsend returns a shot to Mirra Andreeva during their third-round match on Friday night at the US Open. Photograph: Robert Prange/Getty Images
The Ostapenko controversy also tapped into a deeper history. In 2012 the USTA asked Townsend, then 16 and the world’s top junior, to sit out the US Open girls’ 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 Lindsay 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 topple one of the sport’s prodigies on the 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.
Townsend said the night felt worlds away from her breakthrough win over Halep six years earlier on the same stage. “In 2019 I felt like I was climbing and trying to get over the hump … it helped validate me as a player,” she said. “This time it just feels completely different. I wasn’t searching for anything, I wasn’t looking, trying to find answers. I had all the answers in here.”
For Andreeva, an 18-year-old who for years has been earmarked as a future slam winner, the defeat brought an end to a season of consistency at the biggest tournaments, where she had reached the second week at each of the first three majors of the year, including the quarter-finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. The Russian, who claimed WTA 1000 titles at Dubai and Indian Wells earlier in 2025 and reached a career-high ranking of No 5, was simply outplayed in the end as Townsend fed off the Ashe crowd and her confidence mounted.
Townsend will next face the unseeded Czech Barbora Krejcikova, who upset 10th seed Emma Navarro in three sets earlier Friday, for a place in the last eight. For a longtime fan favorite whose Instagram following has roughly doubled over the past week, it will offer her widest audience yet.
“This is some people’s first time finding out who Taylor Townsend is,” she said. “People being able to see me now, but then being able to go back and follow my journey and figure out how I got here, I think that’s super cool. I’m just truly showing up as myself, and I think people see that and I think it’s cool they like what I see. I think I’m pretty cool. I think I’m funny. I think that’s all that matters.”
Not long after Townsend completed her match, fourth seed Taylor Fritz ground out a 7-6 (3), 6-7 (11), 6-4, 6-4 victory over Swiss qualifier Jerome Kym next door on Armstrong, salvaging what had been a brutal day for the American men.
Earlier, sixth seed Ben Shelton and 17th seed Frances Tiafoe were both eliminated within an hour of each other, leaving Fritz and Tommy Paul as the only US men left standing in singles. Paul, the No 14 seed, will face Kazakhstan’s 23rd seed Alexander Bublik on Saturday on Ashe.
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