With the current suspension of the ATP and WTA Tours, USOpen.org is reliving some of the biggest tennis matches in the tournament's history in photos. In our latest featured match, we look back at the 2019 US Open women's second-round match between Taylor Townsend and Simona Halep. Watch the full match on the US Open YouTube channel.
A serve-and-volleying Taylor Townsend earned the biggest win of her career in the second round of the 2019 US Open, where the 23-year-old shocked two-time Grand Slam champion and No. 4 seed Simona Halep in a third-set tiebreak to advance to her first US Open third round.
The victory gave Townsend her first win in three tries against Halep. It was also the first Top-10 win of the young American's career.
"I feel like a lot of the times when I was playing her (Halep), I played not to lose," said Townsend, who came to the net over 100 times, after the match. "A player like that, she's just way too solid, has had so much experience, that's not going to fly. I mean, I was just, like, what do you have to lose? I'm just going to go for it. I'm going to do what I do best where I'm the most comfortable, which is at the net."
Here's a look back, in photos, at one of the first major upsets of the 2019 US Open.
Two-time Grand Slam winner Halep entered the 2019 US Open as the reigning Wimbledon champion. She won her first major title at the French Open in 2018.
Townsend almost didn't play in the women's singles main draw in 2019. The 116th-ranked American had to qualify into the tournament and nearly lost her third-round qualifying match, where she trailed Serbia's Nina Stojanovic by a set and 5-1 in the second-set tiebreak, before rallying to win, 3-6, 7-6, 6-1.
Playing in her 10th US Open last year, Halep had her best result in New York in 2015, when she reached the semifinals. She had lost in the first round of the tournament in both 2017 and 2018.
Prior to 2019, Townsend had never advanced past the second round in four previous tries at the Open. She did have success in the junior tournament, however, as the former world junior No. 1 captured the girls' doubles title in 2012.
Halep took the early lead in the match, breaking Townsend's serve twice and taking the last five games of the opening set to claim it, 6-2.
After dropping the first set, Townsend stayed focused and stuck to her serve-and-volley game plan, taking the second set, 6-3.
Halep held off two match points at 5-4 in the final set and won three straight games before the American steadied her nerves to tie the match at 6-all, forcing a tiebreak.
Townsend edged Halep, 7-4, in the breaker to advance to the third round at the Open for the first time.
The Chicago native came to the net 105 times during the match and won 60 percent of those points against her Romanian opponent.
Townsend defeated another Romanian, Sorana Cirstea, 7-5, 6-2, in the third round, before her dream run ended with a 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 loss to eventual champion Bianca Andreescu in Round 4.
