Taylor Townsend's coach, former No. 3 Zina Garrison, says one of her priorities is for Townsend to avoid being self-conscious about her weight.
Garrison, once a bulimic, told the *Wall Street Journal* **that she was working with the American teenager partly to convey some of her own experiences. "I didn't want her to go through some of the same problems I had, and it seemed she was heading that way," said Garrison.
Two years ago, the USTA caused controversy when its development program did not send Townsend, then the No. 1-ranked junior, to play the U.S. Open because she had not sufficiently improved her fitness. Townsend at first paid her own expenses to compete at the juniors event, getting to the quarterfinals.
"I am overweight, but I'm very comfortable with myself," said Garrison. "People have a tendency to act like you don't know what you're talking about because of your issues. I've done a good job of getting Taylor to understand that she should be comfortable with who she is."
Townsend said she values Garrison's perspective on playing the pro circuit, especially when it comes to attacking the net. "You have to be really bold and you have to be willing to take chances, and sometimes that's not easy," said Townsend. "It helps me a lot that Zina did this. She was No. 3 in the world, it doesn't matter if it was 20-something years ago or 30-something years ago, she did it."
The 18-year-old is coming off winning two consecutive ITF pro circuit events to get the USTA's French Open wild card, playing two singles and two doubles matches in one day while clinching her position.
She said, "It just feels so much different now to know that I earned the wildcard instead of being given it.