The Jiangxi Open semifinals will see a rare meeting of one-handed backhands as defending champion Viktorija Golubic takes on 17-year-old wild card Lilli Tagger.
Jiujiang: Scores | Draws | Order of play
Golubic and Tagger delivered both style and results in the quarterfinals. No. 2 seed Golubic came from 5-1 down in the first set to defeat No. 5 seed Yulia Putintseva in a match she described as a “very strategic, psychological battle.” Tagger, the reigning Roland Garros junior champion who is making her WTA main-draw debut this week, defeated Tamara Korpatsch 6-3, 6-4, and is yet to drop a set this week.
Golubic, 33, is the youngest of only two players with one-handed backhands currently in the Top 100 (the other is 38-year-old Tatjana Maria). Naturally, she approves of Tagger’s rise.
“I’m really excited,” the Swiss player said after her win. “I love to see young players coming up playing the one-handed, it doesn’t happen so often. She’s a great player, she’s very young. I like the feel she has, and it’s going to be a tricky match. I have a bit more experience but we have in some ways a similar skillset. We practice sometimes and it’s just very exciting to have someone like this in the semis.”
Indeed, Tagger’s immediate impact at tour level underlines the Austrian teenager’s promise. She’s won three ITF titles this year — defeating Lois Boisson in the first of those finals, just months before the Frenchwoman made the Roland Garros semifinals — and her overall pro record is 33-8 and counting in 2025. She claimed her first Top 100 win this week over Elisabetta Cocciaretto in the second round.
Against Korpatsch, Tagger delivered an array of fine volleys and drop shots to go with the backhand. She also needed some real mental resolve in the closing stages. On her first match point, a 23-stroke rally concluded with Korpatsch hitting a net cord and her ball seemingly landing wide. It was called out, and Tagger raised her arms in triumph — only for the call to be overturned. Tagger needed another two match points to seal victory.
Tagger’s career to date places her firmly in the lineage of the sport’s best one-handed backhands. Growing up, she was inspired by Golubic’s countryman Roger Federer; she’s currently coached by former Roland Garros champion Francesca Schiavone. It’s appropriate that her breakthrough tour event finds her coming up against one of the WTA’s finest current exponents of the shot.
