According to The Atlantic, the Chicago native was dining at a Chinese buffet with teammates while representing the U.S. in Shenzhen, China, for the Billie Jean King Cup tournament.In since-deleted videos that were posted to her Instagram Story, Townsend criticized the food her table was served, beginning with calling a bowl of sea cucumbers "crazy."
"This is the craziest thing I've ever seen.. and people eating this," the athlete added in a caption. "Imma have to talk to HR.. because what the hell.. turtle and bullfrog is WILD."
Taylor Townsend is a professional tennis player from the United States. She was born on April 16, 1996. She became the WTA world No. 1 in doubles on July 28, 2025. Townsend and Kate have won two big doubles titles together: the 2024 Wimbledon Championships and the 2025 Australian Open. ina Siniaková. She has also won eight WTA Tour titles and made it to the finals of two more big tournaments: the US Open in 2022 (with Caty McNally) and the French Open in 2023 (with Leylah Fernandez). On August 19, 2024, Townsend reached her career-high singles ranking of No. 46.
In 2012, Townsend became the ITF's Junior World Champion by ending the year as the top-ranked female. She was the first American to achieve this since 1982. It came after she won the girls' singles and doubles crowns at the 2012 Australian Open, as well as the doubles titles at Wimbledon and the US Open. By the end of 2012, Townsend was a professional, and in 2014, she made a name for herself on the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour by winning two championships. Her accomplishments made sure she made her top 100 singles debut in 2015.
Townsend is one of the few players on the WTA Tour who often uses serve-and-volley strategies in her games. She has also won several doubles titles in her career. She made it into the top 100 in doubles for the first time in 2016, when she won eight of the ten finals she played in on the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour that year. After taking time off to have a baby, she came back to the sport in 2022 and made it to her first major final at the US Open. After winning two WTA 500 titles, reaching her maiden WTA 1000 final, and making it to her second major final at the French Open, she made her top five debut in the doubles rankings in 2023.
Gary and Sheila (née Jones) Townsend had their first child in Chicago. Her mom used to be a banker, and both of her parents are now high school administrators. Sheila played tennis in Division II at Lincoln University in Missouri. Symone, Townsend's older sister, played collegiate tennis at Florida A&M.
Townsend began playing tennis when he was six years old and was one of the first junior players to join Kamau Murray's XS Tennis program. People know Murray better for helping Sloane Stephens win a Grand Slam title. Townsend relocated to Atlanta when she was eight years old so she could keep practicing with Donald Young's dad. Donald Young Sr. and Townsend's mother are good friends since they grew up together on the South Side of Chicago and trained at the same tennis club.
Townsend relocated to Boca Raton, Florida, when he was 14 to join the USTA development program. The USTA didn't want to pay for Townsend's travel to the 2012 US Open, so Murray and XS Tennis set up a campaign to help pay for about $1000 of the trip. After that, Townsend trained with Murray in Chicago and Zina Garrison in Washington, D.C. region. Townsend wants to play tennis like her hero, Martina Navratilova.
Townsend stated on social media on October 14, 2020, that she was pregnant. On March 14, 2021, she had her son, Adyn Aubrey.
At age 15, Townsend won the 2012 Australian Open singles junior competition. She was the second American to ever win the title, after Kim Kessaris in 1989. She also won the doubles championship at the same event, making her the first American to win both the singles and doubles titles at a junior Grand Slam event since Lindsay Davenport did so at the 1992 US Open. Townsend won the Easter Bowl a few months later, which helped her reach No. 1 in the ITF junior rankings at the end of April.
That year, Townsend kept up her great success in doubles by winning the US Open championship with Gabrielle Andrews and the Wimbledon girls' doubles title with Eugenie Bouchard. She also played with Andrews at the Australian Open. Townsend just missed out on the French Open, where she lost in the semifinals while playing alongside Bouchard. She also won the US Open championship, even though the USTA told her not to play in that tournament because they were worried about her fitness. This was just the fifth year that a person or team could win three out of four Grand Slam doubles championships. Victoria Azarenka and Sloane Stephens, who won the senior Grand Slam tournament, were two of the other players who did this. Townsend was awarded the 2012 ITF Junior World Champion because she was the best junior in the world at the end of the season. Since 1982, when Gretchen Rush was the first American girl to win this award, she was the first.
She kept playing on the junior circuit in 2013 and made it to another Grand Slam singles final at Wimbledon, although this time she lost to Belinda Bencic. As the No. 4 seed, she also played in the USTA Junior National Championship, where she lost in the semifinals against No. 2 Allie Kiick.
First years: WTA Tour doubles final
At 14 years old, Townsend joined her first professional event in October 2010 and won her first match. At the 2011 US Open, when she was 15 years old, she also participated in the doubles tournament with her fellow American Jessica Pegula and made it to the third round. She also got a wildcard into the singles qualifying draw and beat Arantxa Parra Santonja, who was ranked 122nd in the world, in the first round. The next year, Townsend asked for another wildcard into the US Open, but the USTA turned her down because they were worried about her health. A lot of people were upset with the USTA for this choice.
After losing in singles, Townsend teamed up with Eugenie Bouchard, her doubles partner from the previous summer's Wimbledon girls' doubles triumph, to play in the doubles tournament. The two made it to the final, which was the first time either player had ever been in one.
First big match victories in 2014
In the spring, Townsend participated in two clay-court events on the USTA pro circuit in Charlottesville and Indian Harbour Beach, one week after the other. At each of these competitions, she won both the singles and doubles championships. These were her first ITF victories. In both events, Townsend played doubles with Asia Muhammad. Because of her win, she got a USTA wildcard admission into the French Open, where Townsend made her major singles debut as the No. 205 player. She beat Vania King, an American rated No. 65, and Alizé Cornet, the top-ranked French woman in the world, to move on to the third round, where she lost to Carla Suárez Navarro, who was ranked No. 15. The only other American woman to get so far in the event was Sloane Stephens.
Townsend also got wildcards to play in the main draws of the remaining two big events of the year, Wimbledon and the US Open. However, she lost in the first round of both tournaments. The last loss came to Serena Williams, who went on to win the title.
2015: First time in the top 100, then it went down.
After making it to the second round of the Auckland Open, Townsend broke into the top 100 at the start of the season. She got into the Australian Open directly because she was ranked higher, however she lost to Caroline Wozniacki in the first round. She played her first Fed Cup match against Argentina in February and won her lone match, which was a dead rubber with CoCo Vandeweghe. In April, Townsend dropped out of the top 100 and started to have trouble with her game. She only won two matches on the ITF Circuit for the remainder of the year and none on the WTA Tour. She was not among the top 300 at the end of the year.
2016: Dominance in doubles on the ITF Circuit
Townsend went back to mostly playing ITF events after dropping in the rankings. After the 2015 French Open, she decided to go back to her childhood coach, Donald Young Sr. This choice started to pay off in the spring as she got back into shape. In April, she did it again at the Clay Court Classic in Charlottesville, where she won both the singles and doubles titles. This helped her win the French Open Wild Card Challenge again. After working together just once in 2015, the formerly-successful doubles combination got back together and won five ITF doubles championships by the end of April, including three in a row on clay courts in Pelham, Dothan, and Charlottesville. Townsend was back in the top 200 by May and was back at No. 154 after winning her first-round match at the French Open. Her rating kept going up from there, and by the end of the year, she was ranked as high as No. 131 in the world. She also won eight ITF doubles championships to conclude the year ranked No. 73 in doubles.
Back to the top 100 in 2017
Townsend was slightly outside the top 100 until the very end of the year. As a qualifier, she made it to the third round of the Miami Open, which is her highest finish at a Premier level tournament thus far. Townsend's clay-court season in the spring was quieter than the year before, but he still won a match at the French Open. In August, she had another great showing at a major event, making it to the second round of the 2017 Cincinnati Open after having to qualify for the main draw. At the end of the season, she won both the singles and doubles events at two tournaments in a row for the second time in her career, this time at the $25,000 level. Townsend participated in the Waco Showdown, her last event of the year, and won all but two of her first three matches. Townsend won this $80,000 tournament, which was the greatest championship of her career. She also made it back into the top 100 with her result.
In 2018, the highest singles ranking of his career was in the top 75.
During the American ITF clay-court season in the spring, Townsend made an outstanding showing. She made it to the semifinals in two of the four events (Indian Harbour Beach and Charlottesville) and won the championship in the other two (Dothan and Charleston), which were all $80,000 competitions. She also won the French Open Wild Card Challenge for the third time in her career without any trouble. After these series of events, Townsend's rating in the world hit an all-time high of No. 73.
She played for the Philadelphia Freedoms in the World TeamTennis league and won the Female MVP title for the season. The team lost in the WTT Finals.
Fourth round of singles at the US Open in 2019–20
Townsend beat her first top-10 player at the 2019 US Open, beating world No. 4 Simona Halep in a third-set tiebreaker in the second round. She went even farther, beating another Romanian, Sorana Cîrstea, to get to the fourth round for the first time in her career in a big event and as a qualifier.
She reached the semifinals in doubles for the first time at a major event in 2020, when she teamed up with Asia Muhammad.
2022: US Open final and French Open semifinal
At the French Open, Townsend made it to the semifinals for the first time in her career at this major. Madison Keys and her became a protected ranking duo on their first try. She also utilized her protected ranking to get into the singles main draw after returning from maternity leave.
She and Caty McNally came in second in the doubles final at the US Open.
2023: French Open final, WTA 1000 championship, and world No. 5
She got a wildcard for the 2023 Australian Open singles tournament and won her first match against Ysaline Bonaventure.
In doubles, Townsend won her second and third WTA Tour championships in 2023 by winning both editions of the Adelaide International. She teamed up with Asia Muhammad for the Adelaide 1 and Luisa Stefani for the Adelaide 2. Because of this, she established a new career-high in doubles in the top 20 on February 27, 2023.
She went straight from the qualifying draw to the main draw at the Miami Open, where she beat Anna Bondár in the first round. In doubles, they made it to the final with Leylah Fernandez but fell to the American No. 1 team of Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula. On April 3, 2023, she reached a new career high in the doubles rankings, moving up to No. 14.
After reaching the semifinals with Fernandez at the Madrid Open, she moved up to sixth in the world. She made it to the third round of singles at the Italian Open, which is only the second time in her career that she has done so in a WTA 1000 event. She beat Ysaline Bonaventure and third seed Jessica Pegula to get her first top-5 win of the season and only the second of her career. After that, she made it to the WTA 125 final in Firenze, where she lost to Jasmine Paolini.
Later in May, Townsend won three qualifying matches to get into the main draw of the French Open, although she lost to 24th seed Anastasia Potapova. She made it to her second major final at the same competition, this time partnered Leylah Fernandez. Because of this, she reached a new career-high ranking of world No. 5 in doubles on June 12, 2023.
Townsend and Alycia Parks played doubles together for the first time in Cincinnati. They beat Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez in the final to win the championship.
2024: Wins the Wimbledon doubles title and makes it to the quarterfinals of the Canadian singles tournament.
She and Beatriz Haddad Maia won the doubles championship at the Adelaide International by beating Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic in the final.
She qualified for the Indian Wells Open and the Miami Open during the Sunshine Double. In the first round, she beat Magda Linette and Elise Mertens, who was the 25th seed.
With Kate, she made it to her third major doubles final at the Wimbledon Championships. ina Siniaková. They won the championship after beating Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski, who became the new world No. 1 pair, in straight sets with two tiebreaks. Because of this, she moved back into the top 10 in doubles on July 15, 2024.
At the Washington Open, she won her sixth doubles title with Asia Muhammad. This was at the start of the American summer hardcourt swing.
She was ranked No. 71 at the Canadian Open and got in as a lucky loser. She made it to the quarterfinals for the first time at the WTA 1000 level and for the first time in her career at a WTA Tour event. She upset 16th seed Dayana Yastremska by retirement, local wildcard Marina Stakusic, and fourth seed Je? Ostapenko's third largest win of her career. In the Open Era, only Caroline Wozniacki in 2014 (6) lost fewer games than Townsend in 2024 (9) on the way to the quarterfinals, when they both won three matches. She was the first fortunate loser to make it to the WTA 1000 quarterfinals since the concept was introduced in 2009. She got into the main event as a replacement for an injured player. She also made it to the main event of the Cincinnati Open, where she beat Caroline Dolehide and ninth-seeded Daria Kasatkina. She got to No. 46 on the singles list on August 19, 2024, which was her highest placing ever.
She and Donald Young made it to the US Open mixed doubles final, but they lost to Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori in straight sets.
With Kate? Townsend made it to the WTA Finals and the semifinals after going undefeated in the group rounds. In the last four, they beat Chan Hao-ching and Veronika Kudermetova. In the final, Townsend and Siniaková fell to Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe, who were the second seeds.
Doubles No. 1 in 2025, Australian Open doubles title
Townsend won her second major doubles championship by winning the Australian Open with Siniaková. They beat Hsieh Su-wei and Je? ena Ostapenko won the final.
At the Dubai Championships, they teamed up with Siniaková, the defending champion, and beat Ostapenko and Hsieh again to earn their third championship as a team and their first at a WTA 1000. Because of this, Townsend's rating hit a new career-high of world No. 2 on February 24, 2025.
Townsend and Evan King made it to the mixed doubles finals at the 2025 French Open, where they lost to Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori in straight sets.
Taylor Townsend became the 50th World No. 1 in doubles on July 28, 2025, after reaching the final of the 2025 Washington DC Open with Shuai Zhang. She made history by being the first mother on tour to attain the world No. 1 rating in any sport by reaching this milestone. In singles at the same competition, she made it to the quarterfinals but lost to Leylah Fernandez, who went on to win the title.
After winning a second-round match against Je at the 2025 US Open, Townsend and Ostapenko got into a violent confrontation. Ostapenko said Townsend had "no class" and "no education" since he hadn't said sorry for a net cord during play. Townsend went on to win her second match, against fifth seed Mirra Andreeva, and reached the fourth round, which was the same stage she reached at the 2019 US Open, her greatest result at a major. In her fourth-round match against Barbora Krej?, she had eight chances to win. íková before falling in three sets.
Townsend shared many Instagram posts at the 2025 Billie Jean King Cup finals in Shenzhen, China, describing how much she hated the food at the gala dinner buffet. She even said, "These people are literally killing frogs." Later, Townsend apologized and said, "I know I'm very lucky as a professional athlete to be able to travel the world and see how different cultures are."
TeamTennis in the World
Townsend has been with World TeamTennis for six seasons, starting with the Sacramento Capitals in 2013. She played for the Philadelphia Freedoms from 2014 to 2019, and in 2018 she was named the WTT Female MVP because she had the best victory % in women's singles and doubles for the season. It was revealed that she would be playing for the Philadelphia Freedoms in the 2020 WTT season, which starts on July 12.
During the 2020 season, Townsend played mixed doubles with Fabrice Martin and women's doubles with Caroline Dolehide and Sofia Kenin. The Freedoms were the No. 1 seed going into the WTT Playoffs, but they lost to the New York Empire in the semifinals. The Empire went on to win the Championship.
The 2012 US Open was controversial.
The USTA told Townsend she couldn't play in the 2012 US Open Junior event due of her weight. They also turned down her request for a wild card for the US Open main draw or the qualifying tournament, which she had gotten the year before. Patrick McEnroe said, "Our number one concern is her long-term health and her long-term development as a player. Our goal is for her to be playing in Arthur Ashe Stadium in the main draw and competing for major titles when the time comes." Townsend was shocked by the USTA's decision because she was the top-ranked junior girl in the world.
Serena Williams, Lindsay Davenport, and Martina Navratilova were among the players that strongly disagreed with the decision. Sports Illustrated said, "The USTA has taken a paternalistic approach, claiming to be the judge and architect behind Townsend's past, present, and future success. This is the arrogance of an institution that believes there is a tried-and-true formula for making a champion."
At first, the USTA wouldn't pay for Townsend's costs, so she paid to join the junior singles competition, where she was the first seed because of her rating. She won her first three matches in straight sets, but Anett Kontaveit beat her in the quarterfinals, again in straight sets. Patrick McEnroe said there was a miscommunication, and later the USTA agreed to pay for Townsend's costs. The USTA's ruling, however, meant that Townsend could not compete for a wildcard to get into the main draw of the US Open.
After the fight, Townsend left her USTA teachers and started training with Zina Garrison, a former world No. 4, Olympic doubles gold winner, and 1990 Wimbledon finalist. Garrison coached her until 2015.