Two-time doubles Grand Slam champion Taylor Townsend achieved her greatest singles efficiency within the U.S. Open since 2019, reaching the fourth spherical. She was additionally the runner-up on this 12 months’s girls’s doubles match.
The tennis star instructed “CBS Mornings” on Monday that this U.S. Open modified her on a private stage.
“As athletes … in skilled sports activities, you see the top outcome. You see the outcomes of all of the hours and all of the issues, however I feel the most important means that it modified me was my self-worth bought to be on show, the way in which that I have been engaged on myself and the individual that I’m and the way I wish to present up on this planet,” she mentioned.
Townsend addresses Ostapenko’s feedback
Townsend additionally addressed a second early on this 12 months’s match after she defeated Jelena Ostapenko within the second spherical. On the internet after their match, Ostapenko instructed Townsend that she had “no class” and “no schooling.” Ostapenko later apologized for her feedback, saying English isn’t her first language.
“I’ve compassion and understanding,” Townsend mentioned of her rival’s remarks. “I do not suppose that she actually understands the phrases that she mentioned and what they imply to us in our tradition and the place we’re in America.”
She added that she would not tolerate disrespect, saying, “Particularly after I deal with you with respect and with sportsmanship and I am honoring the sport, do not disrespect me.”
Discovering her love for the sport once more
The 29-year-old credit her 4-year-old son A.J. as her greatest motivator on the courtroom.
“Since having him, I’ve had one thing that was larger than tennis,” she mentioned. “Not solely within the second, however later down the highway and to attempt to set myself up for a greater life and when he got here into my life, then it was one thing that I cherished greater than the sport.”
Townsend has been enjoying since she was simply 4 years outdated and turned professional at 15. She mentioned having her son gave her time away from the sport and allowed her to fall in love with it once more.
“I did not understand that I wanted that house,” she admitted.
After shedding her singles match within the U.S. Open, Townsend mentioned she could not wait to compete once more.
“So it was just like the loss actually motivated me in a means, actually, that I have never felt in a extremely, actually very long time,” she added.
