Tennis
Lilli Tagger continues to have a very successful debut at a WTA 250 tournament. The 17-year-old, who is playing in the main draw at this level for the first time thanks to a wildcard, reached the quarter-finals on Wednesday in Jiujiang with a 6:4 6:2 win over the Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto. The next opponent is the German Tamara Korpatsch.
Tagger got off to a perfect start against Cocciaretto. The Austrian immediately took serve from the Italian, who was 146 places higher in the WTA ranking, to make it 2-1 and confirmed the break after defending a break ball. As a result, Tagger had to accept the equalizer to make it 3:3. In a competitive game, the French Open Junior winner used her fourth break point to make it 5:4 and had the first set in her pocket after 55 minutes.
In the second round, Tagger quickly made things clear. After a break and a rebreak, the 17-year-old pulled away with two more breaks to make it 5:1. After a playing time of 1:37 hours, Tagger used her second match point and celebrated her first success against a top 100 player. With the victory, the young Austrian will also move from number 235 into the top 200 of the WTA world rankings.
“I tried to break her rhythm a bit because she is a rhythm player. When I managed to do that, it was the key to success. It was an amazing match. I can’t believe that I won it. It was great fun, I’m really proud,” said the Lienz native.
Reaching the semi-finals is within reach
It is not impossible that the ranking will continue to rise. With Korpatsch, Tagger will face number 159 in the world rankings in the fight for the semifinals. Tagger has already won in Amstetten this season against the 30-year-old German, who defeated her compatriot Ella Seidel 3:6 6:0 6:1. “I know how you play. I’ll watch a little bit more and then play straight away.”
Should Tagger actually make it to the semi-finals, there would be a total of 98 WTA points and an improvement towards 170th place. This would also put a ticket for qualification at the Australian Open in Melbourne in January within reach.
WTA 250 tournament in Jiujiang
(China, $275,094, hard court)
