(Photo by: Mady Mertens, courtesy of the Atlanta Open)
(July 21, 2024) ATLANTA, GA – Local favorite and newly crowned Wimbledon Ladies’ doubles champion Taylor Townsend defeated 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens 7-6. 6-3 in the final Sunday Showdown at the Atlanta Open. Townsend had to rally from a break down to win the first set. This marks the final year of the Atlanta Open tennis tournament.
The 28-year-old Townsend was a replacement for the scheduled Venus Williams who had to withdraw with an injury.
Townsend is just a week back from claiming her first major title, teaming up with Katerina Siniakova to win the Wimbledon doubles title. Townsend is No. 7 in the world in doubles but has been No. 1 in the past.
“I’m really excited and so blessed to be able to come home and be able to share this experience with my loved ones and family and friends,” Townsend said to media. “And then do something like this. We don’t get to do this very often.”
“I had my trophy party yesterday and that was really fun.”
Townsend said: ” We don’t really get an opportunity to celebrate our wins because we have to always go on to the next thing, so I feel like having this little 10-day break was really great for me to be able to really soak it in and get motivated for the next stretch that we have.
The women’s exhibitions have always been sold out, so Tennis Panorama asked both Townsend and Stephens about the potential for a WTA event here, Stephens replied: “It’s above our pay grade.” Townsend said: “It would be great, I think it would be a fantastic event.”
“We know that it’s serious, but at the same time it’s for entertainment,” Townsend said about playing these exhibitions. “It’s kind of hard! At first, I was struggling to calibrate, to not hit too hard, not to hit too soft.”
“To be able to come out here in such a special environment and to be able to witness professional tennis on this level and it to be so fun and in the presence of a Grand Slam chant and someone that’s honestly just an amazing person and an inspiration and doing amazing things on and off the court, I think that it makes it really special,” Townsend said.
“So I’m very happy to be able to have christened the court and have finished it off in this way. And again, I’m just going to keep saying that I really, really am motivated to try and bring professional tennis back to the city because I think that it’s such a great place with lots of opportunity. So I’m gonna be talking to the mayor.”
