Taylor Townsend defeats Ostapenko in Toronto to reach first WTA singles quarterfinal of career

Taylor Townsend has had a stellar doubles career, collecting seven tour-level titles—including her first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon just a few weeks ago—and breaking into the Top 10 last year.

But she’s a very dangerous singles player as well, and on Friday afternoon she made a major breakthrough in that discipline, reaching the first WTA singles quarterfinal of her career.

And at a WTA 1000 event, no less.

The American overpowered No. 11-ranked Jelena Ostapenko in Toronto, 6-2, 6-1, to reach the last eight at the hard-court event.

She had previously been 0-12 in her career in round-of-16 matches in WTA singles events, but broke that pattern in exactly an hour.

TOWNSEND IN ROUND-OF-16 SINGLES MATCHES (tour-level):
2014 Washington DC 2nd Rd - l. to Mladenovic
2015 Auckland 2nd Rd - to Wozniacki
2017 Acapulco 2nd Rd - l. to McHale
2018 Auckland 2nd Rd - l. to Radwanska
2019 Charleston 3rd Rd - l. to Bencic
2019 US Open 4th Rd - l. to Andreescu
2022 San Jose 2nd Rd - l. to Kasatkina
2023 Guadalajara 3rd Rd - l. to Arango
2024 Adelaide 2nd Rd - l. to Kostyuk
2024 Austin 2nd Rd - l. to Yuan
2024 Charleston 3rd Rd - l. to Azarenka
2024 Washington DC 2nd Rd - l. to Bouzkova
2024 Toronto 3rd Rd - d. Ostapenko

Townsend’s win over Ostapenko was the third-biggest win of her career, having had a pair of Top 5 wins over Simona Halep in the second round of the 2019 US Open (No. 4) and Jessica Pegula in the second round of 2023 Rome (No. 3). It’s her sixth overall Top 20 win.

Meanwhile, Townsend has captured seven WTA titles in doubles, most notably Wimbledon this year alongside Katerina Siniakova, as well as a WTA 1000 title in Cincinnati last year with Alycia Parks.

The American mom-on-tour cracked the doubles Top 10 for the first time last year, setting a career-high ranking of No. 5 last June.

Awaiting Townsend in the singles quarterfinals this week will be another American, Emma Navarro, who edged Marta Kostyuk in her third-round match, 7-5, 7-5. They'll play each other on Saturday.