Second-seeded Taylor Townsend and Zhang Shuai faced off against Venus Williams and Hailey Baptiste in the women’s doubles quarterfinals of the 2025 Citi DC Open.After splitting the first two sets 6-4, 3-6, the match came down to a super tiebreak. Townsend and Zhang struck early, securing the first two breaks to surge ahead 4-0 in the tiebreak. The duo held tight to clinch it 10-6, advancing to the semis.Tennis Channel uploaded the final match point from the game, which ended 45-year-old Williams' run, at least in the doubles event. The post was captioned:"What a battle. 👏 Taylor Townsend and Zhang Shuai defeat Williams/Baptiste in a match tiebreak to reach the semis in DC! Venus is still playing singles—stream her third-round match Thursday." View this post on Instagram Instagram PostTownsend reshared Tennis Channel's post on her Instagram. She accompanied it with a three-word reaction:“This was lit ❤️”Taylor Townsend's Instagram storyPreviously, the doubles pairing of Shuai and Townsend defeated the partnership of Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Cristina Bucsa. Now the American-Chinese pair is one step away from reaching the finals of the DC Open.Taylor Townsend's singles surge in WashingtonAmerican tennis star Taylor Townsend is also playing in the singles event of the tournament in Washington. After the qualifiers, Townsend opened her DC campaign with a gritty 6-4, 7-5 victory over Tatjana Maria.She stormed back from 0-4 in the second set, winning six of the final seven games and saving eight of 10 break points. In the next round, she'll face No. 6 seed Sofia Kenin.Townsend will also feature in the mixed doubles event at the 2025 US Open alongside young sensation and fellow American Ben Shelton. A lot have raised questions about the standalone early event with $1 million prize money. However, Townsend shut down those critics.“I think most people are afraid of what they don’t understand, or they’re afraid of change, because it’s something we don’t understand because it’s never been done in the history of the sport,” Townsend said.Shelton and Townsend paired up for the event at the 2023 US Open as well. That season, they reached the semifinals.“She's the best mixed doubles player in the world, hands down,” Shelton said of Townsend. “So if I was going to play, I wasn't going to play at all unless I could play with her.”It remains to be seen how the two will fare in the tournament in New York.