18-year-old Lilli Tagger took giant strides in her tennis career by winning her maiden Tour-level title at the Prague Open on Sunday (July 26). With a straight-sets win over Daria Snigur in the final, the Austrian broke into the Top 50 on the WTA Rankings, reaching an elite circle in the WTA.

Tagger’s Prague title made her the first player born in 2008 to claim a Tour-level title on the WTA, and that’s not all. The Austrian is now the youngest member in the Top 50 in the WTA rankings (ranked 45), and is only the fourth player among the Top 100 to play the one-handed backhand, with the likes of Diane Parry, Viktoija Golubic, and Tatjana Maria.

Tagger came close to achieving this feat in Jiuxiang last year, but lost to Anna Blinkova in the final. This time around, there was no missing the opportunity for Tagger, who put together a terrific campaign over the week, starting with straight-set wins over the likes of Gao Xinyu and Mai Hontama in the first couple of rounds. In the quarterfinals, she faced off against the third-seeded home favorite, Sara Bejlek, but there was no stopping Tagger, who secured another straight-set victory.

Tagger’s most impressive victory came in the semifinals, when she took on second-seeded and two-time Major champion Barbora Krejcikova in the latter’s hometown. After getting a 5-3 lead in the first set, Tagger could not close it out as the veteran Czech won it in the tiebreak. However, Tagger remained unflustered and won the second set 6-3. In the deciding set, both went toe-to-toe and, after a couple of service breaks, reached the tiebreak, where it was the Austrian teenager who kept her nerve and clinched the win.

However, it seemed that nerves had finally gotten a hold of Tagger when she went 3-0 and then 5-2 down in the first set against Snigur in the final. The Austrian, however, showed nerves of steel and got back in the set, winning it in the tiebreak. Once she got the match under control, she did not slip, closing out the second set at 6-2 to win the title. Tagger’s use of the one-handed backhand, a shot long considered a relic in the women’s game, turned heads in Prague as she became the highest-ranked player on the WTA to play it.

However, this success for Tagger has not come in isolation, as the youngster has gradually been building her form in junior tennis and at the ITF levels over the last two seasons.

Lilli Tagger Has Been Producing Results at the Lower-Tier Events in the Last Two Seasons

Tagger’s Prague title will come as no surprise to the people who have tracked the 18-year-old’s performances in the last two seasons. She has had a couple of breakthrough runs on the main Tour, but the Austrian did her work at the lower-tier events as well. She won three ITF titles last year and had a runner-up finish in another.

However, the most significant result for Tagger during that period was winning the junior title at the French Open last year. Playing with a one-handed backhand, the youngster showed her ability to adapt to the slower surfaces and use her creativity to cause problems for her opponents. She’s not overawed by the occasion, as she beat four seeded players during her junior run at Roland Garros, including victories over the third-seeded Jeline Vandromme and top-seeded Emerson Jones.

Playing under the guidance of Francesca Schiavone, no one expects Tagger to let her one-handed backhand go anytime soon, but now that the Austrian has won a title on the Tour, there will be a keen interest among fans and pundits to watch her upcoming performances during the North American hard-court swing, leading up to the US Open.