Taylor Townsend has raised her profile after an impressive run at the US Open this year.
Townsend claimed she has gained respect in the locker room after reaching the fourth round of the US Open singles draw for the first time since 2019.
While her tennis did a lot of the talking, one of the main conversations around Townsend involved her dispute with Jelena Ostapenko after their second round match.
That did not prevent Townsend performing well in singles and reaching the doubles final with Katerina Siniakova.
Townsend is the best doubles player in the world, and she has now revealed why she will never play with her sister again.
Taylor Townsend explains why she would never play doubles with her sister again
Townsend is part of a tennis family, with her mother Sheila once a college player, and her sister Symone also competed.
When speaking on The Pivot podcast, Townsend was asked about her relationship with her older sister.
While it appears that they still very much get along away from the court, Townsend admitted that they did not always get along on court and were told by their parents to stop playing doubles together.
“We grew up playing together and it got to the point where she and I were playing each other in the finals and we would do a coin toss, because my Dad and Mom were like we are not about to drive all the way for you to go play each other,” said Townsend. “We are either going to play on the courts around the corner and we will text the tournament director to say ‘so and so won’ or we flip a coin and say you win this time. It got to that point.
“Then as we started to evolve and went up we started playing doubles with each other. We were playing at a tournament and I would get so mad when she would miss or if she would do something stupid.
“I was like ‘bro, what are you doing, you are making us lose? I am great and you are making us lose’. This was my mindset. I could not do anything wrong.
“So she was at the net and I was bouncing the ball to serve and I was like I have got to teach her a lesson, so I threw the ball up and hit it at the back of her head on purpose. And the whole match I was like my bad, I was sorry, but every time she would miss I would try and hit her with the ball, like I have got to teach you a lesson, stop doing this.
“My parents were so embarrassed. My Dad walked off with his head down and he was like ‘I cannot believe this’. He got both of us off the court and I’m pretty sure we lost the match and he said ‘no more, you can’t play. No more ever.’ And that is the last time we ever played doubles together.”
Why does Taylor Townsend’s sister no longer play tennis?
While Taylor Townsend is still very much a force in tennis, her sister never even made it to the professional scene.
That was not due to her ability, with Symone Townsend the number one player at Florida A&M University, where she was a college student.
However, instead her tennis career was abruptly cut short due to a serious leg injury, something that was reported by Town & Country Mag.
Although Symone is no longer playing tennis competitively, she is likely to be very pleased at how things are going for her younger sister.
After her run at the US Open, Taylor Townsend will now head to Asia, where she will begin things as part of USA’s Billie Jean King Cup Finals squad in Shenzhen, China.
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