Taylor Townsend is hitting her stride by being "my best friend, not my worst enemy"

Taylor Townsend and her brand of tennis is heating up on court. As she’ll tell you, it all starts from within.

“I’m gonna be my best friend, not my worst enemy,” the energetic American explains to Tennis Channel’s Prakash Amritraj.

On Thursday, the left-hander dazzled in a brilliant display at the Miami Open. Taking on No. 25 seed Elise Mertens, Townsend dispatched the Belgian, 6-2, 6-2, converting four of her five break points. Even an untimely rain delay with Townsend holding break point at 4-2 in the second set couldn’t cool off the 27-year-old.

“I just feel incredibly prepared. I’ve been working really hard,” Townsend reflects with Amritraj. “Sometimes the work shows and manifests itself in matches, maybe for a set or a couple of games. I feel like now that I’ve been playing some weeks in a row, matches in a row, things have started to fall in place. The things I have been working on and training for months are finally coming to fruition on the court.”

Townsend has qualified at back-to-back WTA 1000 events. In Indian Wells, after punching her main-draw ticket, she turned the tide to defeat Magda Linette before being edged out by Anna Kalinskaya, 6-4 in the third.

She’s gone one better now at the second half of the Sunshine Double, once again picking up steam by coming through the qualifying rounds. Townsend, whose win over Mertens is likely to return her to the Top 70, could get a crack at testing her level against last year’s finalist Elena Rybakina if the No. 4 seed advances past Clara Tauson.

“I know that I have everything I need to be a top player in the world. I believe that wholeheartedly. I’m playing with that belief. I know internally that I have what I need to win,” states Townsend.

“I’m not gonna be my worst enemy anymore. I’m not gonna beat myself, so my opponents are gonna have to figure out how to beat me. I’m not beating me anymore. That’s not always 100 percent, but that’s my intention.”

Townsend is aiming to win three main-draw matches in a 1000-level draw for the first time in her career. The Chicago native previously advanced to the third round of Miami as a qualifier in 2017 and also reached the same stage at Rome and Guadalajara last season.