Siniakova and Townsend complete career Grand Slam together with US Open comeback

Top seeds Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend completed the career Grand Slam on Friday, rallying past wild cards Ashlyn Krueger and Robin Montgomery 5-7, 6-0, 6-2 to win the US Open doubles title in Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The Czech-American pair sealed the victory in 1 hour, 53 minutes. It also gave Siniakova her second career Grand Slam in doubles, having previously won all four majors with former longtime partner Barbora Krejcikova.

Townsend confessed afterwards that she was feeling nervous in her third US Open final in the last five years, wanting so badly to win the tournament she first attended as a child, and that the chemistry she has built with Siniakova in their two-plus years of playing together helped her navigate it. 

"She ... helped me to relax and helped me to feel like it's OK," she said. "She kept telling me, 'It's OK, it's normal, it's fine, it's a final, it's OK, you'll find it.'

"I think that's what I've learned is just being able to have someone on my side that is able to help me through these situations and through these moments, and it helps to have someone that's been here so many times and who has been able to get over the hump 12 times.

"That's the most important, and being able to feel comfortable enough to speak up and say, This is what I'm feeling, I'm sorry I'm playing like crap, I'm sorry, this is what I'm feeling, and being able to work together as a team to figure that out. So that has taken time. It's taken experiences for us to be able to be comfortable with each other, to be able to speak that way, because you don't want to feel that way. You want to be able to play your best and hold each other up and present strongly in a Grand Slam final after fighting so hard to get there. She really helped me through these moments."

Though the top seeds were heavy favorites on paper against the all-American pair, who won the US Open junior title together five years ago, Siniakova and Townsend were the more tentative team at the start. They won just two points across the first three games before resetting mid-set and taking 12 straight points to pull even from 4-1 down.

Krueger and Montgomery stopped that surge. They saved two break points from 15-40 to hold for 5-4, then broke from 40-15 in the next game to take a surprising first set. Siniakova double-faulted three times in the final game.

Siniakova and Townsend answered with a near-flawless second set, dropping just seven points -- three in an opening game that reached deuce -- to level the match in 24 minutes. They struck 11 winners against two unforced errors.

The turning point in the decider came at 1-1. Krueger had five game points on serve to keep the Americans ahead, but Siniakova and Townsend converted their break opportunity and never gave up the lead. They still had to save five break points in the final game before closing out the championship.

The victory was a full-circle moment for Townsend, who was a runner-up in Queens in 2022 and 2024.

"The US Open is something that I've been coming to as a kid. ... I remember taking the 7 subway [train line] and walking through the park, and I'm, like, 'Oh, my God, I want to play here one day,'" she said. "It's very special for me, also because of all the things that I've gone through over the course of my career."

"I've been through so much, and it just means the world to me," she continued. "I wanted this really badly, and I knew that I wanted it. I felt it in my body and my spirit, because I was so nervous. I haven't been nervous the whole tournament, and then I went out, and I was just, like, I can't play.

"I knew that I wanted it, but I knew that I had to relax and allow things to flow and flourish. When I was able to do that, and credit to Kat, she played amazing and helped me through that moment, then we were flowing, and the scoreline showed that.

"This really means everything to me. Not only just to be able to win the US Open, but to be able to complete a career slam. And I think I'm the first mother to be able to complete a career slam, which I think is amazing."