A 17-year-old East Tyrolean who can learn a lot from Jannik Sinner

She was the first Austrian ever to reach the U18 final at Roland Garros. The last Austrian to reach a junior Grand Slam final was Tamira Paszek at the 2006 US Open. Tagger wasn't even born then. "I was pretty nervous in the second set; it was close, but luckily I won the tiebreak," says the teenager. "The final was my goal. I'll go full throttle." Today, she'll face 16-year-old Brit Hannah Klugmann for the title. She's already played against her twice. Yesterday afternoon, during the semi-final victory, Sinner manager Alex Vittur and Sinner's PR lady Fabienne Benoit were sitting in the stands on Court 10. For the simple reason that the former Bruneck tennis professional Vittur (was number 2004 in the world in 605) also manages the tennis jewel from East Tyrol. As with Sinner, contact with Vittur was made by Bruneck's coaching guru Heribert Mayr, who had also discovered Florian Allgäuer. The Bruneck native won the famous "Bonfiglio" tournament in Milan in 1997 and, at number 216, is still the third-best South Tyrolean in the world rankings, behind Sinner (1) and Andreas Seppi (18). Grew up at the Academy in Vicenza Lilli Tagger grew up at Massimo Sartori's academy in Vicenza. Sartori has coached Seppi throughout her career. Since November 2023, she has been training in Varese with Francesca Schiavone, who won the French Open singles title 5 years ago on June 2010, 15. Tagger now speaks fluent Italian ("like my mother tongue") and attends the Walther Institute online. She only occasionally has to attend classes in Bolzano for schoolwork. Her high school also congratulated her on her first successes on the ITF tour on its website. At the tournament victory in Terrassa, Spain, at the end of March, she followed her semifinal victory against her opponent in today's final, Klugmann, by defeating a certain Lois Boisson in the final. The world number 361 sensationally reached the semifinals at Roland Garros, only being stopped by Coco Gauff on Thursday. "This confirms to me that I have a certain level," says the 17-year-old, who plans to put her junior career on hold after Wimbledon and attempt to break into the professional ranks, just as Sinner has done. "Jannik is a role model for all of us juniors; he enjoys his tennis life and is very professional." Lilli also has nothing but praise for the entire Sinner team: "Everyone has the same goal and everyone wants to give their best; everyone puts their heart into their work," says Tagger. "I can learn an incredible amount from Jannik and learn even more. I can also ask him what I can do better. I do think I'm similar to him. He looks very calm on the court, but I'm pretty sure it's not always a very relaxed atmosphere."

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A 17-year-old East Tyrolean who can learn a lot from Jannik Sinner

She's only 17 years old, comes from Lienz in East Tyrol, and is Austria's great tennis hope. Lilli Tagger reached the French Open junior women's final on Friday. After a 6-3, 7-6 (5) victory over the number one seeded Australian Emerson Jones, she's in the final without dropping a set.

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