Taylor
Townsend showed her support for
Leylah Fernandez during the women's doubles
final at the 2023
French Open.
The duo of
the Canadian and the American has achieved several good results in recent
months and has established themselves as a formidable team in doubles. They
entered the tournament as the 10th seed and defeated several notable pairs,
including the eighth-seeded Luisa Stefani with Gabriela Dabrowski and the
second-seeded Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula, who were finalists last year.
Taylor
Townsend and Leylah Fernandez also reached the semifinals of the Madrid Open,
the final of the Miami Open, and this time the final of
Roland Garros. In a
three-set match, they were defeated by the Chinese duo Wang Xinyu and the
Taiwanese Su-Wei Hsieh.
Although
the North American pair took the lead in the first set, the Asian duo turned
the match around and claimed the title with a score of 1-6, 7-6(5), 6-1.
Townsend was seen consoling the former US Open finalist as she was crying
during the match due to frustration.
"It
has helped a lot. You know Taylor is super positive. So say, after I lose or if
I win, she always sends me a message, like sending good vibes. I think that has
helped me a lot, like acceptance," Fernandez said after match.
"And
doubles has helped me to forget about my singles and let’s move on," she
added. "That's like focus on the doubles. I want to do well. I want to get
through the rounds and we've been having a lot of fun on court. And I see the
advantage of playing doubles and it has helped me a lot in singles too," Canadian
added.
Despite the
defeat, the Townsend-Fernandez duo is currently ranked third in the race to the
WTA Finals, showcasing their consistency as a team and establishing themselves
as contenders in every tournament they compete in.