Taylor Townsend put aside the controversy over comments made about her by Jelena Ostapenko to stun fifth seed Mirra Andreeva and reach the US Open last 16.
The 29-year-old American said her 7-5 6-2 win over the Russian was “bigger than me” as she reached the fourth round at Flushing Meadows for the first time since 2019.
Fellow players including Naomi Osaka came to Townsend’s defence this week after Ostapenko told her she had “no education” and “no class” after their second-round match on Wednesday.
Osaka said those comments were “one of the worst things you could say to a black tennis player”.
Ostapenko argued with Townsend after losing 7-5 6-1 and claimed the American doubles specialist had not apologised after a net cord landed in her favour.
The 2017 French Open champion denied any element of racism to her remarks and Townsend said she did not think there was a racial undertone to the Latvian’s comments.
After claiming one of the biggest wins of her singles career against Andreeva on Friday, Townsend told the crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium: “This feels good.
“All I’m going to say is welcome to the show. I feel amazing. I’m really just proud that I kept the main thing the main thing.
“I want to say thank you to everyone who supported me over these last 48 hours.
“It’s bigger than me. It’s about the message, it’s about the representation, it’s about being bold and being able to show up as yourself and I did that tonight.
“You guys saw the real Taylor Townsend tonight.”
Townsend, who will play unseeded Barbora Krejcikova in the fourth round on Sunday, took just 76 minutes under the lights to surge past 18-year-old Andreeva with some fearless shot making.
She came through a tense first set before running away with the second, hitting a total of 23 winners.
