American tennis star Taylor Townsend is recognized as the world’s number one doubles player. Most recently, she made waves with her comments about authentic Chinese cuisine. She competed in the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Shenzhen. There, she made the US team proud.
On August 31, 2025, Townsend played in the fourth round of the U.S. Open tennis championships in New York City. After an incident with Latvian player Jelena Ostapenko during a brutal second-round matchup, Townsend was unfairly admonished and ridiculed. Ostapenko blasted Townsend for being uncultured and not classy enough. This charge came after a net-cord point that Townsend didn’t apologize for during their match. In the wake of the controversy, Ostapenko apologized profusely for her words.
While in China for the Billie Jean King Cup Finals, Townsend posted several videos to her Instagram Story where she expressed shock at local culinary practices. Her statements were particularly disparaging for culinary specialties like turtle, bull frogs, and sea cucumber. These comments ignited a significant backlash on Chinese social media, with the hashtag “American tennis player criticizes Chinese food” garnering millions of views on Weibo.
In a follow-up video, Townsend took full responsibility for her mistakes and said she was sorry for the things she said.
“The things that I said were not representative of that at all and I just truly wanted to apologize. There is no excuse, there is no words. For me, I will be better.” – Taylor Townsend
Townsend shared her profound respect for the value of cultural differences. As an active athlete she is truly privileged to experience different cultures through the lens of a world perspective.
“I understand that I am so privileged as a professional athlete to be able to travel all around the world and experience cultural differences, which is one of the things I love so much about what I do.” – Taylor Townsend
Even with all of the backlash, Townsend tells me she’s still looking ahead to her next tournaments with positivity. She will face Kazakhstan next in the quarterfinals of the Billie Jean King Cup Finals.
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