Taylor Townsend is one of the greatest American doubles players in history

American left-hander Taylor Townsend is proving to be one of the most successful doubles players in WTA history. Townsend, 27, has won five doubles titles, the biggest and most sentimental for the native Chicagoan was in Cincinnati at the 2023 Western and Southern Open with Alycia Parks.

At Adelaide, she just won her third consecutive ladies' doubles event with three different partners, Asia Muhammad, Luisa Stefani, and Beatriz Haddad Maia. Townsend was a French Open finalist with Leylah Fernandez and has also been successful playing with Caty McNally, Eugenie Bouchard, and others.

Her ability to play and succeed with different partners on different surfaces is what makes her great. Sharing the court with another player and utilizing each player's strengths is not an easy task, but she does it repeatedly with different players and makes it look effortless.

Taylor Townsend uses doubles success to give her confidence in singles

Townsend would be the first to say that she is not a doubles specialist. She is a tennis player who plays both singles and doubles. She uses her successes in doubles to lift her confidence in singles and vice versa.

The notion of singles players succeeding in doubles is coming back into favor. Martina Navratilova and John McEnroe did it in the 1980s. Townsend and fellow Americans Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula are doing it now. It does pose a good problem in Grand Slams if the player is able to advance into the late rounds in both disciplines.

Townsend and Haddad Maia have already struck gold in their first match together. Haddad Maia previously partnered with Victoria Azarenka, but it appears that is not happening at least in the immediate future as Haddad Maia and Townsend are expected to play the Australian Open together. Townsend also has a challenging first-round singles match against Paula Badosa.

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