The young East Tyrolean won the individual victory at the ITF J100 tournament on hard court in England.
The trip to the two ITF J100 hard court tournaments in Loughborough paid off for Lilli Tagger from Lienz. After winning the doubles in the first competition, the 16-year-old won the singles competition in the second tournament. In the final last Friday, March 15th, the eighth-seeded East Tyrolean did not let the second-ranked, 14-year-old Giulia Safina Popa deny her greatest career success to date.
Tagger prevailed against the Romanian left-hander with two set wins (6:4, 6:4). The great young ÖTV talent made a promise for the future in the university and industrial city in the English county of Leicestershire. Tagger won her first international U18 title in April 2022 as a 14-year-old at an ITF tournament in the smallest category.
Lilli Tagger with her trainer Francesca Schiavone. Photo: Tennis Association/Instagram
Now she has achieved the second coup in her young career, but a much bigger one. With confident victories in the first round and quarter-finals as well as her successes in the round of 16 and semi-finals, Tagger made it into the final. In front of the expert eyes of ex-French Open winner Francesca Schiavone from Italy, with whom the East Tyrolean has been training in Milan since November 2023 and who supervised her at both tournaments, the 16-year-old lifted the victory trophy.
Thanks to her triumph in Loughborough, she climbed from 291st to 211th place in the youth world rankings, knocking on the door to the top 200 for the first time. Tagger is eligible to play on the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors up to and including 2026.
2024-03-21 14:42:12
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