Taylor Townsend is the best women’s doubles player in the world right now. But back in 2012, at age 16, she was told that her body wasn’t fit enough for professional tennis.
“It was an official from the USTA. (That’s like being called to the principal’s office.) They said, ‘Taylor, you need to come to Florida — now. We’re putting you on an eight-week block of fitness training,'” Townsend wrote in a 2021 essay from The Player’s Tribune.
Eight weeks of intensive fitness training meant that she’d miss the US Open, despite being the No. 1 ranked junior in the world. Nothing about the feedback made sense to her. At the time, Townsend already felt like an outsider in the world of tennis, being a young, Black girl from the South Side of Chicago. Now, it felt like her weight was another alienating factor being used to keep her from reaching her dreams. This rang truer for Townsend after it was discovered during the fitness intensive that her “health problems” were due to anemia. And still, she was being told she couldn’t compete.
“When I was going through all this stuff, there was no body-positivity movement. It didn’t exist like how it does now.”
Townsend, however, doesn’t take kindly to the word “no” — especially not when it comes to others telling her what she’s capable of. So with her guaranteed spots secured in the juniors draw, Townsend raised the money and funded herself to compete in New York, ultimately making it to the quarters in singles and winning in doubles. Now looking back on that experience, Townsend says she wouldn’t wish it on anyone. But it also made her the player she is today.
“When I was going through all this stuff, there was no body-positivity movement. It didn’t exist like how it does now. The conversations didn’t exist,” she tells Popsugar in an exclusive interview in partnership with the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). “It was like very much, here’s the box — you need to fit in it . . . it was very black and white.”
Fast forward to 2025, Townsend has made a name for herself in the tennis world for doing things her way. As a power lefty, she’s amassed two Grand Slam doubles titles (2024 Wimbledon, 2025 Australian Open) and ten WTA Tour doubles titles, several of which she won post-maternity leave. Plus, two singles titles and two junior doubles Grand Slams. Yet, some people in the tennis world still seem to question her place.
At the US Open on Aug. 27, after losing to Townsend in a singles match 7-5, 6-1, Latvian player Jelena Ostapenko made some loaded statements, telling Townsend she has “no education, no class.” The reason? Ostapenko thought Townsend should have apologized for a shot tha