Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend Win U.S. Open Women’s Doubles Title
NEW YORK – Under the closed roof of Arthur Ashe Stadium, with history hanging in the air, Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend turned a shaky start into a coronation.
The No. 1 seeds claimed their first U.S. Open women’s doubles title together on Friday, Sept. 11, rallying past Ashlyn Krueger and Robin Montgomery 5-7, 6-0, 6-2 to complete Townsend’s career Grand Slam and deliver Siniakova a second lap around that same rare track.
From 0-3 down to total control
For a while, the script looked nothing like a celebration.
Townsend, 30, from the United States, and Siniakova, also 30, from Czechia, fell behind 0-3 in the opening set as the young American wild cards swung freely and fearlessly. Krueger and Montgomery, reunited on this stage after winning the U.S. Open girls’ doubles title in 2021, took the first set 7-5 and looked right at home in the sport’s biggest stadium.
Then the match flipped.
Townsend and Siniakova tightened their patterns and raised the tempo. Returns dipped lower, serves bit harder, and the No. 1 seeds began to suffocate rallies at the net. The second set became a statement: 6-0, a shutout that underlined the gulf in experience at the sharp end of a major.
The pressure carried straight into the decider. Townsend and Siniakova slammed through their service games, hammered forehands from the baseline and kept the Americans pinned back. The scoreboard moved quickly: 6-2 in the third, and with it, the U.S. Open title.
What started as a nervy scramble ended as a controlled march.
“There was lot of nerves,” Siniakova admitted on court afterward. “We were really fighting for this one, so I’m just really proud. We did it.”
A Grand Slam puzzle finally complete
For this partnership, the trophy in New York closes a circle that began on the grass of Wimbledon.
Townsend and Siniakova captured their first major together at Wimbledon in 2024. They backed it up on hard courts at the 2025 Australian Open, then on clay at the 2026 French Open. The U.S. Open was the last missing piece. Now, Townsend owns a career doubles Grand Slam, each leg won alongside Siniakova.
For Siniakova, this is familiar territory, yet no less remarkable. This title completes her career doubles Grand Slam for a second time, after she first achieved the sweep with Barbora Krejcikova by winning the 2022 U.S. Open. She added another major doubles crown in Paris with Coco Gauff at the 2024 French Open.
Few players in the modern game have dominated the doubles landscape as comprehensively as Siniakova. Fewer still can say they have done it with multiple partners.
Wild cards who refused to play the part
Across the net, Krueger and Montgomery did far more than simply fill a draw.
Offered a wild card, they tore through the tournament, taking out defending champions Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski in separate matches as both former partners returned with new teammates. The run spoke to their chemistry and their shared history in New York.
"I think with what we've just done has been amazing," Montgomery said. "I think we did forget that we were offered a wild card, so I'm just glad we made good use of it, and I'm glad we were able to come back together and continue playing here, especially with our success in juniors."
They leave with a final on Ashe, a reminder of their junior title here in 2021, and the sense that this stage may soon feel less like a surprise and more like a regular destination.
A powerful day for Black American tennis
For Townsend, the night carried weight beyond the trophy.
Addressing the crowd inside Ashe, she pointed out the significance of the moment: two Black American women in the women’s doubles final – herself and Montgomery – on the same day two Black American men, Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton, would face off in the men’s singles semifinals for a place in Sunday’s final.
Later, in her press conference, Townsend expanded on what this U.S. Open has meant.
"I'm so proud to be able to click on the TV and watch Frances (Tiafoe) and Ben (Shelton), and one of them is going to be able to be in a Grand Slam final, and that's a beautiful thing," she said. "You know, Robin, myself, you know, it's been Coco, it's been a phenomenal US Open for people of color, and just being able to show people, like, it's possible, you know?
"But we're not the first; we're definitely not going to be the last."
On a night when a veteran champion completed a second career Grand Slam and her partner finally closed her own, the scoreboard told one story. The faces on court, and what they represented, told another – one that stretches far beyond this fortnight and deep into the future of the sport.
