Wimbledon glory for Taylor Townsend after battle against USTA weight discrimination

From junior star to Wimbledon doubles champion

Townsend was one of the most prominent junior players of recent times. At an early age, she was compared to the Williams sisters, reached the world junior ranking of No. 1, and won the 2012 Australian Open singles and doubles titles, becoming the first American to win the singles and doubles titles at a junior Grand Slam since Lindsay Davenport at the 1992 US Open.

She later won the Wimbledon girls’ doubles with Eugenie Bouchard and was one of the favorites to compete for the local title at the 2012 US Open. Controversy arose when the USTA decided it would not reimburse Townsend’s travel expenses to compete in the US Open, implying that the player was overweight and needed to improve her physical condition.

Taylor Townsend joined Leylah Fernandez at 2023 French Open and reached the final. They lost to Su-Wei Hsieh and Wang Xinyu.

“I’m not thin and I’ve never been thin — that’s just the truth, straight up. Seriously, I used to stand on the field with my little rolls in my tight tank tops. Why?? Because why not?? I thought I was beautiful. I thought I was beautiful and I wasn’t ashamed of it,” she added.

“This wasn’t the first time my conditioning had come up. It was something I had been working on with my coaches… and I’ll be the first to admit that conditioning wasn’t my strong suit that summer. But I was still getting results where it mattered most, you know what I mean?” Taylor Townsend said.

“It was frustrating!! I was sitting there, flying back to Florida to start my fitness break — while all the other juniors I knew (girls I ranked higher) were on their way to New York to prepare for the Open,” she added.

Despite not having USTA funding, Townsend traveled anyway and paid her family out of her own pocket. The player reached the quarterfinals of the junior tournament, losing to Estonian Anett Kontaveit.

“Why does my ranking say I’m the best in the world…and my doctor says I’m cleared to play…and yet the USTA says I need to see a nutritionist…and lose some weight???” Taylor Townsend said in the Players Tribune column. “It didn’t make sense. It was confusing as hell. And it hurt — it really hurt,” she added.

“My mom was the one who protected me from all that. She always said, ‘You’re a kid, you need to stay in a kid’s shoes. Let me handle the adult stuff.’ So for the most part, Symone and I would just go outside and play. But we still knew what was going on.”

“We heard them talk about it, saw the looks on their faces, that kind of thing. And it was tough. Seeing how you’re giving your family a hard time? That’s tough at any age,” Taylor Townsend said.

“And the thing about those parents saying shit about me — it was like they felt like their kids were the ones being robbed of an opportunity. Like they weren’t getting the ‘country club tennis experience’ that they signed up for. Tennis was supposed to be ‘their’ sport. And yet here was their kid, getting beat by a big black girl,” Townsend said.