Taylor Townsend continues to make herself at home in DC punching her ticket into the Round-of-16 for the second straight year.

Fresh off a pair of qualifying wins over the weekend, Townsend held off Tatijana Maria 6-4, 7-5 Tuesday in the opening match on John Harris Court.

Townsend, who captured the doubles crown in DC last summer, overcame an 0-4 second-set deficit before winning seven of the final eight games.

“I had a little bit of a dip in my energy in the second set,” she said in her on-court post-match interview, “but I was really happy with the way I found my game and I locked into what I wanted to do.”

Townsend is an Atlanta native, but briefly lived in DC as a teenager and trained with the WTEF. She is also partnering this week with Shuai Zhang as the second-seeded team in the doubles draw.

Townsend will next face No. 6 Sofia Kenin or DC native Hailey Baptiste in the second round of the singles draw.