How the long game has borne fruit for the new double n ° 1 Taylor Townsend

Washington, DC – Taylor Townsend never received the luxury of a silent rise. In 2012, at the age of 16, she was the world n ° 1 Junior, an open Australian champion and a Wimbledon in double. But praise quickly gave way to judgment.

She was the “IT” girl of her tennis generation – until she was not.

Townsend, who did not have the lean and sculpted look of so many other Junior Elite players, was prevented from participating in the US Junior Open and sent to its training center in Florida to focus on improving its physical form. Finally, its funding and its support from the USA were dismissed.

What do professional athletes look like? Townsend was an early trial case in the very uncomfortable framework of a in -depth public examination.

“I had to go through some of the most difficult difficulties and the most personal struggles in the eyes of the public,” she told journalists here at the Mubadala Citi Dc Open. “Certain really very intimate subjects which were to be a subject of conversation literally in the world as a child and having to defend myself when I was a child.

“It made me who I am, and it made me appreciate each stage of the path, and be able to make someone say,” you seem so happy to play “, it is a victory.”

On Friday, there was a cause of joy when, 13 years after having reigned as the first junior, Townsend captured the classification n ° 1 PIF WTA in double.

“It’s a dream,” said Townsend. “This is one of the goals I set myself when I started to think that it was feasible.”

She and Zhang Shuai, playing together for the first time, qualified for the final when the semi -final team of Emma Raducanu and Elena Rybakina – Er a Carré when they got to know each other – withdrew after 25 minutes of 4-1. Raducanu and Rybakina should play matches in the semi-finals on Saturday.

The result puts an end to the 46 -week reign of Katerina Sinakova at n ° 1. She and Townsend have been playing together since 2024, when they won titles in Wimbledon and the WTA end -of -year tour championships. In January, they won the title of Australian Open and followed it at WTA 1000 in Dubai.

When Siniakova chose to play in the Prague Open, Townsend approached Zhang and the two won their first two games. The 325 points for having reached the final on Townsend ahead of Siniakova, who abandoned the 250 points of last year who came from the victory of the title of Prague with Barbora Krejcikova.

Townsend’s simple race ended on Friday with a defeat of 6-4, 7-6 (4) against Leylah Fernandez. But earlier in the tournament, after beating the head of n ° 6 Sofia Kenin, Townsend presided over an extending and enlightening press conference.

“There was no one who experienced what I experienced since I experienced it, so I think things have changed a little – which is great, right?” Said Townsend. “When I crossed the whole body image, there was no movement of body positivity. It didn’t exist.

“It was common to scrutinize the types of body and give a person an archetype of the body and what you should be and have to put people in this box. And now, over the years, it has evolved to break these boxes and fundamentally people who can accomplish what they want in their fields, but you look and anything. “