Let's take a moment to reflect upon the rise of Austria's Lilli Tagger

Let’s take a moment to reflect upon the rise of Austria’s Lilli Tagger, who this week made her Grand Slam main draw debut in the women’s singles at Roland Garros.

The 18-year-old may have lost to Wang Xinyu of China, P.R. in the opening round, but there is a wider context at play here. It was only twelve short months ago that Tagger was crowned Roland Garros girls’ champion.

The teenager has since won three more ITF World Tennis Tour titles, including a career-best at W100 Fujairah, made her WTA Tour and Grand Slam debuts and reached a career-high No. 90 in the world rankings.

She retains an interest at Roland Garros and will once again team up with Italy’s Sara Errani as the duo bid to reach the third round of the women’s doubles when they face Ellen Perez and Demi Schuurs tomorrow.

Tagger’s output was enough to see her included within the ITF’s ‘Class of’ series in 2025, while she is another player to have received financial assistance through the ITF-operated Grand Slam Player Development Programme.