Teenage wild card Tagger to meet Chinese-speaking Blinkova in Jiujiang final

Playing the first WTA main draw of her career, 17-year-old wild card Lilli Tagger pulled off a remarkable escape to dethrone defending champion Viktorija Golubic 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 in the Jiangxi Open semifinals. The Austrian teenager trailed 5-2 in the third set -- and then, from 5-4 and triple match point down, reeled off an astonishing 13 straight points to reach her first WTA final.

"I'm still shaking!" Tagger said afterwards. "If you asked me a question about playing the final earlier this week I would say no, it's too early. I couldn't think about it."

Jiujiang: Scores | Draws | Order of play

The reigning Roland Garros junior champion, Tagger has improved her WTA ranking from No. 773 at the start of 2025 to her current No. 235 after winning three ITF titles this year. She's the first 2008-born player to reach a WTA final, both the youngest and lowest-ranked WTA finalist of 2025 and she will make her Top 200 debut next week.

The 2-hour, 12-minute contest was a rare showdown between two single-handed backhands, and delivered in terms of quality, style and tension throughout. Tagger played a spectacular opening set, and even after Golubic got a foothold in the match at the start of the second, the youngster came from 2-0 down to lead with a break at 4-3.

Golubic had said after her quarterfinal victory that while the two players had similar skillsets, she had the edge in experience. That showed at this point: mixing her game up with clever drop shots and net rushes, the 33-year-old No. 2 seed stole the second set and, as Tagger seemed to tire, quickly advanced to 5-2 in the decider.

Having showed what she could do in full flow at the start of the match, Tagger proved she had real grit with her back to the wall as well. Holding firm in long exchanges and picking her moments to unleash her backhand, she chipped away at Golubic's lead before her sprint to the finish. The result is Tagger's second career Top 100 win, following her defeat of Elisabetta Cocciaretto in the second round this week.

She's the first player to reach the final in her WTA main-draw debut since Noma Noha Akugue was runner-up at Hamburg 2023, and just the third to do so while aged under 18 in the past two decades following 2018 Moscow River Cup champion Olga Danilovic and 2012 Tashkent runner-up Donna Vekic.

Tagger is bidding to be the first player to win the title in her debut since Maria Timofeeva at Budapest 2023. She's also aiming to become the first Austrian WTA titlist since Yvonne Meusburger at Bad Gastein 2013.

Blinkova reaches third career final ... and achieves linguistic ambition

Tagger will next face Anna Blinkova, who defeated Czech first-time semifinalist Dominika Salkova 6-4, 6-4 to advance to her third career final and first since Strasbourg 2023. Blinkova, 27, has become a crowd favorite in Jiujiang after speaking in Chinese during her on-court interviews -- and not just a token "xie xie" ("thank you"), either.

"It was a tough match today," Blinkova said in Chinese after defeating Salkova. "My opponent played well. I have been brave and showing willpower. Thank you for cheering for me. I like playing in China, I feel good here in China and I'm so grateful to my Chinese fans."

This moment has been years in the making for one of the tour's resident polyglots. When wtatennis.com interviewed Blinkova in 2018, the year she broke into the Top 100, she already spoke four languages -- Russian, English, French and Slovakian -- and had begun learning Chinese via two apps with the goal of conversing with the Chinese players on tour.

Since then, she's succeeded in that goal -- Blinkova partnered Yuan Yue to the Austin doubles title in February -- and two months ago, she told Bounces that she had a new linguistic ambition in China this year.

"I'll be so happy if I manage to talk with the Chinese people in their language," she said. "Maybe give an interview in Chinese? I'm looking forward to it."

Consider that another one off the bucket list. On court, Blinkova will aim to lift her second career title following Cluj-Napoca 2022.