Taylor Townsend reached her first career semifinal at the ATX Open in Austin after beating Ashlyn Krueger. In the final, she was defeated by Payton Stearns, 7-6, 7-5. But before that, Townsend said something that got the attention of former US Open champion Andy Roddick.
After winning her semifinal in Austin, Townsend slammed her haters for saying that she was finished.
“Everyone that’s talked s—, they gotta eat their words. I’m still standing, I’m still here, I’m not going anywhere,” Townsend said. “And it’s only just gonna keep getting better from here, so I hope that they buckle up.”
However, according to Roddick, Townsend overreacted with her words, sensing that nobody had been talking negatively about her in the first place. During his recent episode of “Served,” Roddick said Townsend was forcing such statements out of herself in times when the current narrative is no longer the same.
“I mean, nobody’s really talked that much,” Roddick said. “Everyone has pretty much just been cheering for her for a while now. It was 15 years ago, and I can tell you who it was from and why it was happening, but everyone likes her now. Like, she’s still carrying that. She’s kind of forcing it a little bit, but it’s because everyone really likes her.”
Roddick also explained why he felt Townsend’s words were a bit out of place.
“Yeah… I’m sure we all used it, but at a certain point, it’s tougher to use,” added Roddick. “It’s not like after being in two Wimbledon finals, you can say no one thought I’d be here. I don’t know if I was pursuing it like Michael Jordan.”
Andy Roddick Surprised With Taylor Townsend’s Accomplishment in Austin
Taylor Townsend didn’t leave Austin by just making heads turn with her appearance in the finals of the singles event. She also made the doubles final with Storm Hunter and went on to win the title by beating the pair of Eudice Chong and Liang En-shuo in the doubles finals.
Seeing this, Roddick was appreciative of Townsend and also expressed his surprise that it was the American’s first tour final.
“That was a weird stat for me, first time she made a tour semifinal, which is crazy to me, because every time I watch Taylor [Townsend] play, I just think she’s so good,” he said. “She played singles Saturday, doubles Saturday, singles Sunday, doubles Sunday, takes a flight, and she’s playing qualies, Indian Wells today. That’s a good problem to have!”
Townsend played 10 matches in seven days and was still able to reach the finals in both events, which is quite the achievement.
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