Taylor Townsend Shares Son’s Emotional Breakdown Amid Chaotic WTA Schedule

“Me trying to keep my s— together after 7 weeks on the road, 5 countries, and 5 time zones,” Taylor Townsend’s honest reaction, earlier this year, on her WTA calendar, pretty much summed up the harsh reality of professional tennis. No matter if you are done with one event in a week, there’s always the next one waiting. And Townsend knows it well. Every time she leaves for one more tournament, she has to sacrifice precious time with her adorable, 4-year-0ld son Adyn. But when the loop keeps stretching further with no end, there comes a moment of breakdown. This time, it seems Adyn has had enough.

Townsend recently wrapped up her hectic hard-court run. After Wimbledon, back in July, she has played non-stop in events like the Citi Open, Canadian Open, and Cincinnati Open, culminating with the US Open. But even then, she has not got any respite.

The 29-year-old took to her Instagram and shared a couple of clips with her son. One clip showed Adyn crying out loud as Townsend is about to leave. “😢🥺 never gets easier”, she wrote.

The second clip was a happier one as where Adyn is helping Taylor pack a bag. She captioned it, “lol forgot to post first, but this is how we started 🤣 all was good until it wasn’t.” Despite this, the gruelling schedule is taking its toll on Taylor and her family. And she has already made her frustrations about scheduling known to the WTA.

Taylor Townsend let out her frustration with event scheduling

Last season, Taylor Townsend was set to compete in both the Canadian Open and the Cincinnati Open. However, she was left baffled by the timing of her matches, especially in the evening slot, right after playing in Toronto. Not to mention her rant on the financial struggles she faced while switching from one venue to the other in quick succession. “I have to play at 5 o’clock tomorrow at Cincinnati. It’s stressful trying to figure out how to get out of Toronto and how to get to Cincinnati. The only flight out of Toronto is like $1400 a person, and a layover, no matter what,” she confessed while throwing light on her challenges.

Despite her comments, there has been no change in the WTA scheduling. Even this year, she appeared at both, Toronto and Cincinnati tournaments. But there has been one silver lining for her this campaign: her singles record. While she is the World No.1 in the WTA rankings in the doubles category, she has also developed her singles game in recent tournaments.

For context, Taylor made it to the Quarter-Final stage at the Washington Open. She followed that up with a third-round showing at the Cincinnati Masters before making it to the fourth round at the US Open. It was after six years, since the 2019 edition, that she made it this far in New York in singles. It will be intrguing to see how she manages her singles game with her doubles commitment in an already increasingly packed WTA schedule.