WTA Match of the Year, No. 3: Barbora Krejcikova, Taylor Townsend produce 2025's most heart-stopping contest

This week, Steve Tignor will reveal his WTA Matches of the Year, and the TENNIS.com editors will reveal our WTA Players of the Year. Check out our ATP Matches of the Year and ATP Players of the Year.

The match between Barbora Krejcikova vs. Taylor Townsend at the US Open didn’t involve the WTA’s best players: At the time, Krejcikova was ranked 62nd and Townsend 139th. It didn’t happen at the business end of the tournament, either. This was a fourth-round encounter, played on the Open’s second show court, Louis Armstrong Stadium.

Yet it may have been the most heart-stopping contest of the season.

Anyone who follows tennis knew that, whatever their rankings may have been at the moment, these two women could combine to produce something special on the right day. Krejcikova, despite her relatively low Q rating, has one of the most appealingly varied shot palettes in tennis. The same can be said for Townsend, who loves to use finesse almost as much as she loves to rush the net. Each has been ranked No. 1 in the world in doubles.

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The match also came with an extra emotional charge. A few days earlier, Jelena Ostapenko had accused Townsend of having “no class” and “no education” after losing to her. She later apologized and said she meant “etiquette,” not “education,” but the controversy inspired Townsend’s fellow players, and fans at the Open, to rally around her. The capacity crowd in Armstrong was primed to push her as far as she could go against Krejcikova.

Townsend went as far as possible, without actually winning the match. Feeling the good vibes, she came out with all of her shots firing. The American won the first set 6-1. When she broke serve with an immaculate backhand topspin to go up 3-1 in the second, the rout, and the hometown party, seemed to be on.

With Krejcikova, though, a match generally isn’t over until she says it is. She plays a low-margin game, and often suffers the consequences of that. But if Krejcikova’s not making errors, she’s tough for anyone to out-hit or out-play. Down a set and a break, with her chances running out, the two-time Slam champ essentially stopped missing on the important points. At 1-3, she survived a long game to break. Serving at 2-3, she hung on through another multi-deuce game to hold, level the set, and silence the crowd.

From there, the two played evenly into a tiebreaker, before Townsend seized the initiative again to lead 6-3. What ensued may have been the most wildly dramatic passage of play of 2025. Over the next 15 minutes, Krejcikova would save eight match points, and win the breaker on her fourth set point.

She didn’t do it by playing safely or waiting for Townsend to miss.

At 3-6, Krejcikova took an inside-out forehand and hit it for a clean winner.

At 4-6, she charged forward and watched as Townsend tightened up and dropped a makable forehand pass into the net.

At 6-7, Krejcikova uncorked a backhand into the corner. It was close enough to flying out that many fans started to celebrate. Unfortunately for them, and for a disbelieving Townsend, it was just in.

At 10-11, Townsend put a backhand pass into a tricky spot for Krejcikova, only to watch as Krejcikova reached out and threaded a backhand volley down the line and past her. Again, Townsend could’t believe what she’d just seen.

At 11-12, Krejcikova fired another inside-out forehand, this time on her return, within an inch of the sideline.

Finally, up 14-13, on her fourth set point, Krejcikova stormed the net and closed the set—which lasted 98 minutes—with a smash.

“At all those match points, I was just very, I mean, brave as well, but also lucky at certain points, because we had great rallies, and I was facing them when I was serving, then when I was returning,” Krejcikova said.

She plays a low-margin game, and often suffers the consequences of that. But if Krejcikova’s not making errors, she’s tough for anyone to out-hit or out-play.

Townsend was brave as she could be in the third, saving a match point and revving the crowd back up at 3-5, before finally succumbing 1-6, 7-6 (13), 6-3.

“It just stings, because I literally gave everything,” she said. “She came up with some really, really great tennis in moments where she was down, and I thought I had it.”

Townsend says that her coach has a rule where she’s allowed to “sulk for three minutes” after a loss.

“I took 10” for this one, she said with a smile.

As for Krejcikova, she loved every minute on the Armstrong stage, even if she had to be the villain in this particular play.

“I like when there’s a crowd. I like when they are cheering. I like when the atmosphere gets, I mean, you can, like, start cutting it,” she said. “It’s perfect.”