Taylor Townsend outlasted fifth seed Mirra Andreeva and advanced to the US Open last 16. Jelena Ostapenko’s comments about her helped her put the controversy behind aside.
The 29-year-old American said her 7-5, 6-2 victory over the Russian was “bigger than me” as she advanced to the fourth round at Flushing Meadows for the first time since 2019.
Naomi Osaka and other players, including Naomi Osaka, defended Townsend this week after Ostapenko claimed she had “no education” and “no class” following their second-round match on Wednesday.
According to Osaka, those remarks “were one of the worst you could possibly say to a black tennis player.”
After losing 7-5 6-1, Ostapenko and Townsend engaged in a dispute and claimed that the American doubles player had not apologized after a net cord propelled her in her favor.
Townsend said she did not believe there was a racial undertone to the Latvian’s remarks, and that the 2017 French Open champion had denied any racism in them.
Townsend told the crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium, “This feels good, this is one of her biggest wins of her singles career against Andreeva on Friday.”
Welcome to the show is all I’m going to say. I’m amazed. I’m really happy that I kept the main goal as the main goal.
“I want to thank everyone who has given me the support over the past 48 hours.
It is “bigger than me.” Being bold and able to appear as yourself, as you are, is what matters, and that’s what I did tonight.
“You saw the real Taylor Townsend tonight, guys.”
Townsend will face Barbora Krejcikova in the fourth round on Sunday in the title match. She made the 76th-minute runaway shot making against 18-year-old Andreeva.
With partner Katerina Siniakova, Townsend, a former junior number one, is ranked number one in doubles. She won the women’s title at both Wimbledon and the Australian Open.
However, she is ranked 139th in the singles, and this was her third win of her senior career against a top-10 opponent, having defeated compatriot Jessica Pegula in Rome last year and Simona Halep in the fourth round in New York.
In her post-match press conference, Townsend continued, “I’m made for this kind of stuff,” saying to her team.
Because I remained true to who I am, I really feel like it wasn’t difficult. Nothing that I said was required for me to defend.
“I would never allow any outside events or drama to prevent me from achieving what my goal is when I play on the court.” I was raised in that manner.
She continued, adding that after being flooded with goodwill messages via texts and social media, she ultimately decided to turn off her mobile phone.
I told my team, “Dang, I didn’t know that this many people had my phone number.”
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Source: BBC
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