Taylor Townsend

She became the first American girl to hold this honor since Gretchen Rush in 1982.

She also won the doubles title at the same event to become first American to win both the singles and doubles titles at a junior Grand Slam event since Lindsay Davenport accomplished the feat at the 1992 US Open.

A few months later, Townsend won the Easter Bowl to help complete her rise to No. 1 in the ITF junior rankings before the end of April.

She continued her major success in doubles that year by winning the Wimbledon girls' doubles title with Eugenie Bouchard and the US Open title with Gabrielle Andrews, with whom she also partnered at the Australian Open.

The only major that eluded Townsend was the French Open, where she lost in the semifinals while partnering with Bouchard.

Additionally, she was able to win the US Open title in spite of being asked to sit out that tournament by the USTA over fitness concerns.

This was only the seventh year where a player or team was able to win three out of four Grand Slam doubles titles, with senior Grand Slam tournament champions Victoria Azarenka and Sloane Stephens among the others to complete this task.

Taylor Townsend (born April 16, 1996) is an American professional tennis player.

Townsend entered her first professional-level tournament in October 2010 at the age of 14 and was able to win her first career match.

She also played in the doubles event at the 2011 US Open when she was 15 years old and reached the third round with her compatriot Jessica Pegula.

She also received a wildcard into the singles qualifying draw and defeated world No. 122, Arantxa Parra Santonja, in the first round.

The following year, Townsend requested another wildcard into the US Open and was declined because of the USTA's concerns about her fitness.

As a junior, Townsend was named the ITF's Junior World Champion in 2012 for finishing the year No. 1 in the girls' rankings, making her the first American to do so since 1982.

It came after she won the 2012 Australian Open titles in both girls' singles and doubles, as well as the Wimbledon and US Open doubles titles.

Townsend turned professional by the end of 2012 and in 2014, she broke through on the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour after winning two titles.

When the USTA decided not to fund Townsend's expenses to compete at the 2012 US Open, Murray and XS Tennis organized a fundraiser to cover nearly $1000 of the cost of the trip.

After that, Townsend split time training with Murray in Chicago and Zina Garrison in the Washington, D.C. area.

Townsend tries to model her game after her tennis idol, Martina Navratilova.

Townsend won the 2012 Australian Open junior tournament at the age of 15 to become only the second American to ever win that title after Kim Kessaris in 1989.

Townsend finished the season as the No. 1 ranked junior in the world, for which she was named the 2012 ITF Junior World Champion.

She continued to play on the junior tour in 2013 and reached another Grand Slam singles final at Wimbledon, this time losing to Belinda Bencic.

She also competed in the USTA Junior National Championship as the No. 4 seed and was knocked out in the semifinals by No. 2, Allie Kiick.

Her achievements ensured her top 100 singles debut in 2015.

Known as one of the WTA Tour's few players to frequently employ serve-and-volley tactics in her gameplay, Townsend has also won numerous career doubles titles.

She first entered the top 100 in doubles in 2016 after winning eight of ten finals reached on the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour that year.

Following her return to the sport in 2022 after maternity leave, she reached her first major final at the 2022 US Open.

In 2023, she made her top five debut after winning two WTA 500 titles, reaching her first WTA 1000 final, and appearing in her second major final at the French Open.

Townsend was born in Chicago to Gary and Sheila ( Jones).

Her parents are both high school administrators, and her mother used to work as a banker.

Sheila played Division II tennis at Lincoln University in Missouri.

Townsend has an older sister, Symone, who played college tennis at Florida A&M.

Townsend started playing tennis at the age of six, and was one of the first junior players to participate in the XS Tennis program run by Kamau Murray.

Murray is better known for coaching Sloane Stephens to a Grand Slam title.

When Townsend was eight years old, she moved to Atlanta to continue training with Donald Young's father.

Townsend's mother is a close friend of Donald Young Sr., as they grew up together on the South Side of Chicago, where they trained at the same tennis center.

At age 14, Townsend moved to Boca Raton, Florida, to join the USTA development program.

She has been ranked as high as world No. 61 in singles by the WTA, which she first achieved in July 2018, and she attained her career-high doubles ranking of world No. 5 in June 2023.

A five-time doubles title holder on the WTA Tour, Townsend has also reached two major finals: the 2022 US Open (with Caty McNally) and the 2023 French Open (with Leylah Fernandez).

On October 14, 2020, Townsend announced via social media that she was pregnant.

She gave birth to her son, Adyn Aubrey, on March 14, 2021.