Taylor Townsend recently celebrated the WTA’s post-French Open rankings, pointing out that two American Black women, including Coco Gauff, are ranked No. 2 in singles and doubles. Townsend is fresh off a successful outing at Roland Garros, where she and mixed doubles partner Evan King finished as runner-up. In the women’s doubles, Taylor was beaten at the quarterfinal stage alongside partner Katerina Siiniakova.
Taylor has retained her position as the second-ranked doubles player in the world, just behind Siniakova. The pair has had an excellent 2025 season so far. Semifinalists in Miami and Indian Wells, and champions in Dubai and at the Australian Open in January, the team is deservedly seen as the best women’s doubles partnership in the world.
Townsend posted this fact on her Instagram stories, but also shared an image of the new WTA singles rankings. Taylor’s compatriot and fellow African-American Coco Gauff, who won her maiden French Open title on Saturday, features as the World No. 2 in the list. Taylor captioned the image:
Trending
"Two black women from the USA are ranked #2 in both singles and doubles. That part @cocogauff @yvonneorji"
Coco Gauff had already assumed second position before the French Open. After her epic 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-4 over World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, the American moved closer to the Belarusian, but remains 3,470 points in arrears.
Despite Taylor Townsend and Coco Gauff's success, Black women have traditionally been underrepresented at tennis's top table
Black women have played tennis for more than 100 years, but it wasn't until Zina Garrison reached the Ladies' Final at Wimbledon in 1990 that a Black woman was seen in a Grand Slam decider in the Open era. Garrison lost that day to 18-time Major champion Martina Navratilova 6-4, 6-1. She also played in three Major semifinals, at the Australian Open in 1983, and twice at the US Open in 1988 and 1989.
Garrison paved the way for modern champions, the Williams sisters, Sloane Stephens, Taylor Townsend, and Coco Gauff. Traci Green, the black Harvard University tennis coach, remembers the impact Garrison's achievements had on her as a young player, per USAToday.com:
“I had never seen a pro match or Black woman professional before up close. A couple of years later, I met Zina and Katrina Adams and hit some balls with them. Had I not seen Zina frequently and up close, I don’t think I would have fully believed there was space for me in tennis and that I truly belonged."
Nine years after Garrison's Wimbledon attempt, Serena Williams won her first Grand Slam, the US Open in 1999. Along with her sister Venus, the siblings dominated women's tennis for the next 20 years and inspired an entirely new generation of Black women to take up the sport. Taylor Townsend and Coco Gauff are representatives of their legacy.
