The doubles world No.2, Taylor Townsend, completed one of the most significant achievements of her career on Friday, completing a career Grand Slam in doubles alongside her partner Katerina Siniakova. The top seeds rallied from a set down to defeat American wildcards Ashlyn Krueger and Robin Montgomery 5-7, 6-0, 6-2, winning their first US Open doubles title together.
But during her on-court interview, Townsend looked beyond her own victory to the significance of the day for Black representation in tennis, pointing to the players who had shared the court with her and those still to come in the men’s semifinal.
“I also just take a lot of pride in this, being a black woman here,” she said, referring to Montgomery. “It’s two black women here in this finals. They’re two black men in the semifinals. Phenomenal time for tennis, for inspiration, for representation.”
She then turned to former World No.6 and tennis legend, Chanda Rubin, conducting the interview courtside. “Chanda, it means a lot for you to be standing here as well, because you paved the way for us as well, so thank you. This is a phenomenal time for tennis, and it’s just getting started.”
That said, the US Open title is the duo’s fourth major title together, following Wimbledon in 2024, the Australian Open in 2025, and this year’s French Open. They had also reached the US Open final last year, but finished runners-up to Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski.
Siniakova now has 12 career Grand Slam doubles titles overall and becomes the first player in the sport’s history to complete the career Grand Slam with two different partners, having also achieved it with fellow Czech Barbora Krejcikova.
“It just means the world to me,” Townsend said afterward. “This really means everything to me, not only just to be able to win the U.S. Open but to be able to complete a career Slam.”
A historic semifinal decades in the making
Her comments came hours before Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe were set to face off in the men’s semifinals, the first time in the 58-year Open Era that two Black American men have played each other at that stage of a major. The winner will be the first black American man to advance to the US Open final in 54 years and the first to make it to any major final in 30 years since MaliVai Washington reached the Wimbledon final in 1996.
The only Black American man to win a Grand Slam singles title is Arthur Ashe, the man after whom the world’s largest tennis stadium is named. He was a three-time Grand Slam champion, most famously known for upsetting Jimmy Connors at Wimbledon in 1975, a title that stands as the last Grand Slam won by a Black American man in 51 years.
Shelton leads the overall head-to-head against Tiafoe, 3-1. Ironically, two out of those four meetings have come at the US Open itself, which is deadlocked at 1-1. The eighth seed won their tie in the 2023 quarterfinals, and then Tiafoe got his revenge the very next year in the round of 32, defeating him in a five-set thriller.
The Americans have had strong black representation on the women’s side, thanks to the Williams sisters and now Coco Gauff leading the legacy. Both Shelton and Tiafoe have reached the semifinals on individual occasions before, but to be able to do it at the same time is historic for American tennis, especially with one of them having the chance to make a guaranteed place in the finals and challenge Alexander Zverev for the title.