WTA/ATP: Maiden titles for Tagger and Van Assche

Former RG junior champs claim silverware

A pair of former Roland-Garros junior champions claimed maiden tour-level titles on Sunday with Austria’s Lilli Tagger reigning supreme at the WTA 250 in Prague and France’s Luca van Assche taking home the ATP 250 trophy in Estoril.

Tagger, a girls’ singles champion on Parisian clay in 2025, became just the second teenager to win a WTA title this season with a 7-6(3), 6-2 victory over Ukrainian eighth seed Daria Snigur in the final.

Tagger was ranked outside the top 500 this time last year but has rocketed up the charts and is now the youngest player in the WTA’s top-50, rising to a career-high 45 in the world this week.

Showcasing her single-handed backhand that has already earned her many fans at such a young age, Tagger wiped a 2-5 deficit in the opening set against Snigur and finished the match with nine aces and an 81 percent success rate in points behind her first serve.

“We’re doing amazing work, we’re working very, very hard, so thank you for helping me every day to achieve my goals,” Tagger said to her team, which includes former Roland-Garros champion Francesca Schiavone, during her victory speech,

“Today is actually quite a special day because my family is here. They decided yesterday evening to come. It’s very special for me to stand here today and having this trophy in front of you. Normally they watch every match at home live but today they came to watch it. thank you very much, I think everything I’ve done in life wouldn’t be possible without you.”

Meanwhile in Estoril, 2021 Roland-Garros boys’ singles champion Van Assche also earned a top-50 debut by clinching the first title of his career with a 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 performance against Alexander Blockx.

The 22-year-old Van Assche started his week in Portugal by grinding through a three-hour 26-minute opening round victory against local wildcard Frederico Ferreira Silva, which set the tone for a series of hard-fought wins for the Frenchman.

Four of his five victories in Estoril went to three sets, including triumphs over Pablo Carreno Busta and tournament top seed Andrey Rublev.

“Super, super happy, super proud, of course, of my week. It was a crazy week from the beginning to the end with so difficult matches. So, yeah, I'm so happy to win the title here. I was not expecting that, of course, one week ago. So, yeah, I'm just so relieved,” Van Assche told Tennis TV after the final.

Van Assche squandered a 5-3 lead in the decider to but held his nerve to close out the win and become the 10th first-time winner on the ATP Tour this season.

“It was tough conditions today, also with a lot of wind. And yeah, first final is never easy,” he explained.

“I had a little bit of difficulties at the beginning to serve. So, yeah, I just adapt on it. And yeah, I just found solutions and I tried to keep with this. And yeah, at the end, of course, there was a lot of tension, but I'm happy with how I managed the end of the match.”

Van Assche's latest triumph is the continuation of a love affair with Portugal, having previously claimed his first Challenger title and first ATP match-win on Portuguese soil.

“You should organise a Masters or a Slam,” joked Van Assche during his victory speech.

Titles for Halys and Korpatsch

Over in Kitzbuhel, another Frenchman became a first-time champion as Quentin Halys ended the title defence of Alexander Bublik with a 6-4, 7-6(6) victory in the final.

Van Assche paid tribute to his compatriot’s success by writing a message for him when signing the camera lens after his final in Estoril.

“Bravo Quentin (heart emoji). Allez la France,” scribbled Van Assche.

Halys did not drop a set all week and knocked out the tournament’s top two seeds – Valentin Vacherot and Bublik – en route to the title.

“Of course that’s a great achievement. I was trying to get a title even at Challenger level. Now its been three years [since my last Challenger title] and I’ve lost some finals,” said the 29-year-old Halys in an interview with atptour.com.

“I knew before this tournament I was playing great, but it’s a huge difference between, let’s say, making the quarter-finals or winning. Hopefully it’s going to give me a lot of confidence. Now the goal is to get back to another final and of course to try to win one more title.”

In Hamburg, Tamara Korpatsch became the first home champion at Am Rothenbaum since Stefanie Graf in 1992 with a 6-3, 6-3 win against Hungary’s Anna Bondar.

The Hamburg-born Korpatsch, who ended Mayar Sherif’s 13-match winning streak in the semi-finals via retirement, claimed the second WTA title of her career, and first since 2023.

The victory has taken the 31-year-old Korpatsch to a new career-high ranking of 46.