Tagger, Kalinina advance in Australian Open qualifying
Lilli Tagger, the 17-year-old rising Austrian talent, showed off both flair and grit on her Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open. She overhauled Gao Xinyu 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 in 2 hours and 54 minutes -- the longest match of Day 2 -- to reach the second qualifying round.
Last year, Tagger claimed the Roland Garros junior crown, then ended her season with a statement run on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz -- reaching the Jiujiang final in November on her WTA main draw debut. Across the season, she rocketed from No. 977 to No. 153 in the PIF WTA Rankings. It's not just her results that have turned heads; one of Tagger's key weapons is a sizzling one-handed backhand, a shot that has become increasingly rare in the professional game. Appropriately, she's coached by the last woman to win a major with a single-hander -- 2010 Roland Garros champion Francesca Schiavone.
There were plenty of crowd-pleasing hot shots from Tagger in her first Grand Slam qualifying match -- she slammed 40 winners to Gao's 34, and won 15 of 25 points at net. But it was the teenager's resilience in the final match of the day that stood out as she clawed her way back from a set and 4-2 down.
Tagger won consecutive multi-deuce tussles to edge the last two games of the second set, but they paled next to the first game of the decider -- an extraordinary 20-minute, 12-deuce marathon that saw her hold after saving seven break points. Though Gao continued to battle valiantly, Tagger did not relinquish her momentum from this game. She'll next face Elena Pridankina, who upset another player with a one-handed backhand, No. 13 seed Diane Parry, 6-3, 6-2.
Elsewhere, a clash of the two most recent WTA 125 champions saw Anhelina Kalinina best No. 19 seed Joanna Garland 7-5, 6-2. Former No. 25 Kalinina returned from a six-month layoff in December and won the Limoges title in her first tournament back; Garland was last week's titlist in Canberra. The Ukrainian will next face Anouk Koevermans, who eased past 17-year-old Australian wild card Tahlia Kokkinis 6-3, 6-3.