‘It’s bigger than me’: Taylor Townsend topples No 5 Andreeva in US Open shock
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,”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.
Police warn protesters not to travel to Epping after asylum hotel ruling – as it happened
The leader of Epping Forest district council has called for calm after the court of appeal ruled asylum seekers can stay at the Bell hotel in Essex.Councillor Chris Whitbread told Times Radio:I call for calm. There’s been peaceful protests and there’s been non peaceful protests outside the hotel.He added:We saw yesterday the government say that asylum seekers have more rights than my residents. I’m really cross with this ruling
Court orders seizure of counterfeit underwear seller’s £90m assets
A self-styled clothing tycoon who sold counterfeit socks and pants while operating an extensive fraud ring will have all his UK assets seized after the Crown Prosecution Service won a court order to confiscate up to £90m worth of property and luxury cars.Arif Patel, 57, from Preston, Lancashire, who has been on the run since 2011, will have homes and business premises he owned taken from him after a confiscation order granted by a judge at Chester crown court on Thursday.His Ferrari 575 Superamerica will be sold at auction, as will property in Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.Patel masterminded a gang that was convicted in 2023 of one of the UK’s biggest VAT tax frauds in HMRC’s history.In a sequence of trades known as carousel fraud, he moved goods between different companies, creating false export and import records that he used to claim back large sums from the tax authorities
Not monsters, but truly monstrous | Brief letters
All I learned from Nick Clegg’s interview (‘If the people who ran Facebook were monsters, I wouldn’t have worked there’: Nick Clegg on tech bros, Trump and leaving Silicon Valley, 23 August) is (a) his fawning homage to his former boss means that he is keeping his career options open and (b) he still doesn’t get why people despise him for his role in the coalition government. Zuckerberg, Cameron and Osborne may not be monsters, but the real harms they have wrought and their lack of any kind of accountability, responsibility or contrition are truly monstrous.Simon CollinYate, Gloucestershire A letter (22 August) perpetuates the claim that Angela Rayner is bent on selling off allotments for development. It isn’t true, as is clear from a close reading of your 5 August article, which unfortunately had the unhelpful headline “Jeremy Corbyn warns rules on council asset sales threaten allotments”. They don’t, they haven’t been changed, and sales have actually fallen slightly
How to tax the wealthy without a wealth tax | Letters
Faiza Shaheen is misguided in her advocacy of a wealth tax (Rachel Reeves needs to find cash fast. A wealth tax really is her only viable option, 22 August).There are far more practical policies available to tax wealth as part of the progressive narrative. These are based on the idea of taxing the income from wealth rather than taxing wealth directly.This is the approach of Prof Richard Murphy’s Taxing Wealth Report 2024, which estimated a tax yield of £90bn a year from its proposals
Reform UK council removes St George and union flags over safety fears
A Reform-led council has started to remove flags and bunting displaying the St George’s cross and the union flag after concerns were raised that they could cause accidents.Durham county council issued a statement on X on Friday saying that while the council “understand and respect the community’s desire to express national pride, celebration, or remembrance, it is important to ensure such expressions do not compromise public safety”.The council claimed it had been “left with no choice but to remove bunting” after a risk assessment found that “rope involved was so strong that, had a high-sided vehicle driven into it, the poles it was attached to could have been pulled down”.The statement said the council’s “priority remains ensuring the safety and integrity of the highway network, while being mindful of, and responsive to, the communities we serve”. It encouraged residents “to consider safer and more appropriate locations for flags or other displays that do not involve highway infrastructure and conform to all appropriate standards and regulations”
Starmer names former Bank deputy governor as his chief economic adviser
The former Bank of England deputy governor Minouche Shafik is set to join Keir Starmer’s team as chief economic adviser.In a boost to the prime minister’s office in the run-up to the autumn budget, Lady Shafik is expected to take on the role after a year heading a Foreign Office review of the government’s foreign aid spending.A member of the House of Lords, Shafik resigned last year as the president of Columbia University after criticism of the treatment of Jewish students during anti-Israel protests at the institution’s New York campus.Shafik was previously head of the London School of Economics, a deputy governor of the International Monetary Fund and the top civil servant at the now defunct Department for International Development. In 2019 she was touted as a possible contender to replace Mark Carney as the Bank of England’s governor
Potassium-rich diet may cut risk of heart failure by 24%, study suggests
Rayner set to hit English councils that block new housing with tougher sanctions
Third of children do not play outdoors after school, UK research finds
Why is chickenpox vaccination being offered to children in England next year?
Older autistic people need more help after years of misdiagnosis, review finds
Chickenpox jabs introduced as experts warn many children in England start school without vaccinations