Taylor Townsend clinched her first singles title of the season on Sunday after triumphing on the ITF World Tennis Tour at W60 Templeton.

The 27-year-old American defeated Mexico’s Renata Zarazua 6-3 6-1 in the final for her first title in 12 months - the latest step forward in her resurgent return to the women’s game since stepping away from tennis to become a mum.

Townsend returned to the sport in April 2022 following the birth of her son Adyn and has gone from strength-to-strength since.

In September, she reached the third round at a Grand Slam for the first time in four years at the US Open, and this weekend added a third title to her haul over the past 18 months – following her ITF titles at W100 Charleston last May and W80 Tyler last October.

The lefthander has risen as high as No. 5 in the world in doubles this year, but is making moves in singles too – edging closer to her career-high ranking of No. 61 this week after climbing 12 places to No. 77 in the latest WTA singles rankings.

The Top 50 is firmly in her sights. 

"I've stacked up my end of year schedule pretty tight," said Townsend. "I basically have a tournament every week - and my goal is just to continue to get points so I can end the year inside the Top 50.

"I’m headed in the right direction. But this is tennis, it’s Sunday, we start back on Tuesday... so I’m going to enjoy this today, travel tomorrow and get ready to play for the next week. I have a lot of confidence and momentum going into the next tournament now which is great."

 

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This weekend also saw breakthrough wins for Lina Gjorcheska, of North Macedonia, and YeXin Ma, of China, PR., who each claimed their biggest titles yet on the ITF World Tennis Tour at W40 tournaments.

YeXin defeated Ya Yi Yang 7-6(6) 6-7(0) 6-0 to win the title on carpet at W40 Nanao, Japan, while Gjorcheska overcame Croatian Antonia Ruzic to win W40 Kursumlijska Banja in Serbia.

Seventeen-year-old Czech Nikola Bartunkova continued her impressive season, winning her third professional singles title since April at W25 Santa Margherita di Pula.

The former junior world No. 8 has balanced her professional aspirations with a strong end to her junior career – finishing runner-up in the girls’ singles at Wimbledon in July ahead of a third round run at the junior US Open.

Click here to view all the weekend's results on the ITF World Tennis Tour