Taylor Townsend is used to playing opponents older than her, but even she has never experienced an age gap quite this big.
The top-seeded 19-year-old defeated 69-year-old Gail Falkenberg in the second round of qualifying for the $25,000 International Tennis Federation Pro Circuit event in Pelham, Alabama.
It was unquestionably the most unusual win of her young career.
Townsend won, 6-0, 6-0, in 36 minutes, not a surprising score given her opponent's record. According to ITF records, Falkenberg played a few professional events in the 1980s and then began a stop-and-start comeback in the mid-nineties. Prior to this tournament, she had not won a match since 1997 and was 0-64 since her most recent return in 2011.
Falkenberg finally snapped her losing streak in the tournament in Alabama. In the first round of qualifying, she defeated 22-year-old Rosalyn Small, who is 0-25 in ITF events.
Her persistent pro career had gone largely unnoticed until this week. She spent time as the men's and women's tennis coach at the University of Central Florida, and according to a 1985 article in the Freelance Star, she was the USTA National Public Parks champion in 1983.