“There are so many things I can do” – Townsend breaks down singles vs doubles dilemma

Taylor Townsend arrives in Rome in a very different competitive situation compared to her last stop on tour. In Madrid, she lifted the doubles title alongside her regular partner Katerina Siniakova, confirming her status as one of the most reliable doubles performers on the WTA Tour.

In Rome, however, she has had to navigate a far more demanding singles path, starting from qualifying and playing her way into the main draw. The transition has been immediate. Townsend came into Rome with almost no preparation time after a disrupted travel schedule following Madrid.

That lack of adjustment time has shaped her early matches, forcing her to rely more on competition rhythm than practice sessions. Despite that, she has already built momentum through qualifying and into the main draw.

Her results reflect that gradual adaptation. She moved through qualifying with wins over Valeria Jiménez Kasintseva and Rebecca Šramková, before beating Nicole Brancaccio in the main draw. That run set up a Round of 64 match against Maria Bouzkova, a player she had already beaten earlier in the season on hard courts.

For Townsend, the core issue is not execution but decision-making speed. In doubles, she operates within a structured environment where responsibilities are shared and patterns are more predictable. In singles, the court opens completely, and that freedom, she says, can become a problem rather than an advantage.

She explained that the number of tactical choices in singles can slow her instinct. “On the singles court, there are so many options," Townsend said to Tennis Channel. "For me I can do so many things. I’m like, ‘Ooh, what should I do today?’ That’s tricky though. It’s hard,” the American said. “In doubles the decision-making is more limited because you’re playing half the court.”

“There are so many things I can do—drop, chip, loop, drive. So I’ve been scratching my head because I can do it over here, and then in singles it’s so much harder.”

Her response has been to simplify rather than expand. Townsend is actively trying to bring the calmness and clarity of doubles into singles, even if that sometimes means reducing natural variation in her game.

“I’ve been really working hard over these past couple of weeks to transfer the same mentality that I have in doubles into singles—being calm, knowing I can do this or that, and being more clear on what I want to do and not feeling like I have to do too much,” the Ameircan stated. “Sometimes I feel like I’m not being myself, but sometimes less is more. Simple gets the W’s. Simple is great.”

Townsend’s Rome campaign has also highlighted how much she depends on match repetition to find rhythm, especially on clay. With limited preparation after Madrid, she leaned on qualifying matches to adjust to slower conditions and longer rallies, using competition as a form of calibration.

“I think the two matches in qualifying really helped me to get my feet wet and get a chance to get used to these courts, because they are a lot different.”

Her early matches in Rome have reflected that process. After navigating qualifying, she beat Brancaccio in the main draw, continuing a steady progression rather than an immediate peak. She has repeatedly pointed to patience as a key factor on Rome’s slower clay, where points naturally extend and timing becomes more delicate.

“There wasn’t a ton of rhythm. She hit a lot of drop shots, a lot of slices. So it just forced me to be patient and work the point and not go for too much, because I didn’t really have to.”