Over a decade after her body and commitment were doubted, the American became the Open’s most compelling presence amid controversy, prejudice and triumphChanda Rubin left the door open.Slotted into hosting Friday’s US Open women’s doubles trophy presentation, the respected former American great kicked off the festivities at Arthur Ashe Stadium by inviting the runners-up to the mic on center court to speak freely.“Really? I just get to talk?” Taylor Townsend said.“As long as you want,” Rubin warmly assured.The 29-year-old American and world No 1 in doubles had already made quite the statement over the past fortnight.

Well, three weeks if you count her run in the mixed doubles bracket with compatriot Ben Shelton in the US Open’s newly extended format.After that came a dazzling unseeded run to the fourth round of the singles that saw her beat the Russian prodigy Mirra Andreeva for her third ever victory against a top-five player before taking a tough three-set loss to two-time slam champion Barbora Krejcikova, the American matching the career high-water mark she reached in 2019.Thirteen years after becoming tennis-famous as the world’s No 1 junior, Townsend had became an overnight mainstream sensation: No player in New York gained more Instagram followers in week one.Seeded first in the doubles draw with 10-time grand slam winner Katerina Siniacova, Townsend didn’t drop a set until third-seeded Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe beat them 6-4, 6-4 in a final that drew a surprisingly large and enthusiastic crowd for a women’s doubles match.In her concession speech, Townsend – who ultimately came up short of bracketing the year with grand slam doubles titles after winning the Australian Open with Siniakova – called her US Open experience this year life-changing and “monumental”.

It wasn’t hyperbole.Ever since first picking up a racket at age four, Townsend has had to fight against her sport’s stubbornly intractable biases.In a world that twee country club princess who can play against type, Townsend has always stood out as a Black woman from Chicago’s rough and tumble South Side and considered less of a Big Babe than just plain big – reportedly playing at around 170lb even though just 5ft 7in.Famously, while the world’s top-ranked junior at age 16, Townsend became a cultural flashpoint after her mother, a former college player, went public about the the United States Tennis Association denying her travel funding for the 2012 US Open because coaches insisted she improve her “overall fitness”.Even as then player development chief Pat McEnroe made clear that the USTA was really looking out for Townsend’s “long-term health and development” and was seemingly telegraphing to her peers that the federation prized fitness more than results, the controversy made Townsend something of a Rorschach test for cultural debates around race, body image and gender politics – with Townsend supporters quick to point that American greats Serena Williams and Lindsay Davenport were singled out for having “unconventional” body types, even as they piled up grand slam hardware.

But though initially hyped as a Williams sister-level prospect – with coaching from Wimbledon finalist Zina Garrison, Donald Young Sr and Kamau Murray (the corner man for Sloane Stephens’s 2018 US Open title) to recommend her – Townsend has had a mostly workaday career in her 13 years on WTA tour, going six years before cracking the top 75 on the singles chart.And yet: The harder the tennis establishment tries to submit her as an example of what a pro tennis career shouldn’t look like, the more fans seem to relate and take inspiration from her insurgent campaign.Since 2021, Townsend has pursued tennis while raising her son, Adyn – “a great accident,” she called him recently.“It was a complete shocker to me to find out I was pregnant.” After giving birth, Townsend challenged herself to step up her health and fitness commitments and wound up losing 80lb.

In an interview earlier this year with the American sports journalist Jemele Hill, Townsend was candid about the dismal financial margins for players at her level, itemizing the litany of expenses that she has to cover just to put herself in position to earn a prize check.“In 2017 I played a pro tournament, and I made $66,” Townsend recalled.“Minus the $40 entry fee.I drove to the tournament.So I had $26 that I left a professional tournament with – and I was like, this can’t even fill up my gas tank!”Where another player might connect with a sports apparel powerhouse to help fund their playing endeavors, Townsend was never approached to model and had to mix and match her own bought clothes instead.

In fact, she’s been doing it for so long that she just went ahead and launched own clothing line this year in collaboration with creative director Alexander John (of LA Gear and Puma fame) and debuted the “TT”-logoed fits at the French Open,(“I’m just taking things into my own hands,” she said,) Given the unfairness that she’s experienced in tennis, it’s in some ways inevitable that Townsend would become most known for her patch sponsorship deal with the law firm of Ben Crump – the civil rights advocate who the Rev Al Sharpton fondly calls “Black America’s attorney general”,Crump was among many fans who would make a civil rights case out of the altercation that followed Townsend’s straight sets second-round defeat of 25th-seeded Jelena Ostapenko,The Latvian, apparently bitter toward Townsend for not raising an apologetic hand after a net cord that turned a critical point in her favor, told the American she was “disrespectful”, had “no education” and “no class”.

On the internet, the snapshot image of Townsend calmly smiling on as Ostapenko melted down was seen emblematic of Black women’s experiences with Karens on the job, while Ostapenko’s “no education” comment triggered some refreshingly nuanced tennis commentary about the insidious nature of racism the responsibility Ostapenko’s has, as a privileged white woman in the sport, to recognize it anyway.“One of the worst things you could say to a Black tennis player” is how Naomi Osaka described the “no education” line by Ostapenko, who ultimately walked the insults back without apologizing to Townsend directly.Townsend, for her part, didn’t take the comments aboard and rejected the idea that they were racially coded despite the tournament-seizing controversy.In general, Townsend’s graceful, easygoing nature has a habit of seeing her through.Before the Ostapenko incident, Townsend was winning over fans for the compassion she showed Danielle Collins during a physical and emotional match at this year’s Cincinnati Open.

After Collins unraveled during the match and marched off the court in tears following the straight sets loss, Townsend gathered up Collins’s belongings and hoisted them up to her team in a shocking display of sportsmanship.Collins later revealed that she was playing through the pain of a herniated disc, which pitched up her frustration.Townsend’s chill vibes and deft lefty game are what ultimately led Siniacova to recruit her for doubles in May 2024 – and the partnership has produced Townsend’s best results and forged a strong bond between the two players.(After their post-match news conference in English, Townsend insisted on staying for a bit of Siniacova’s Czech interviews and having her partner teach her a few words for thank you.) Their successful collaboration has also produced some genuinely delightful social media posts that have lent further insight into Townsend’s winsome personality.

After the pair won Wimbledon last year, Townsend’s first major championship, she posted a video of herself staggering around her hotel room in the afterglow victory and bubbly,“Y’all, I’m fucked up,” she beamed,“They kept bringing me champagne,I ain’t drank in months,”After congratulating her vanquishers and moving on to thanking the locker room attendants and security guards in her US Open concession speech on Friday, Townsend reemerged inside of the main interview room at Arthur Ashe Stadium with a Honey Deuce in hand, no worse for wear.

As symbolic as it would have been to see her win a maiden US Open after her early trials in the USTA – with Althea Gibson looming large over this year’s spectacle and Rubin, the first Black woman to win a grand slam doubles title after Gibson, on court – Townsend will totally take this result.Between her split of the $500,000 runner-up check (which should cover a fair number of travel expenses and fuel-ups) and the Tiffany finalists plate (which she was thinking might make a posh charcuterie platter), Townsend has much to savor about her finest ever year on tour to date.But as it turns out there was an even bigger consolation prize that Townsend didn’t expect to receive during her time in Queens: statements of respect delivered by her counterparts at random.“I really feel like the type of tennis that I played and just the way that the person and the player that I am now really gained a lot of respect in the locker room,” she said.“Even Novak [Djokovic] said something to me.

Jannik [Sinner] said something to me – like, ‘Hey, you played really well.Keep going.’ Everyone was watching.The biggest thing that has changed for me, too, is just being able to truly show up as myself publicly and for people to be able to receive that as it is.It’s very liberating and freeing.

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