Hot Shots

Vote: What was the best shot of the week?

Hot Shots
3m read 20 Jul 2026 3w ago
Lilli Tagger, Athens 2026

The WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz served up another week of highlight-reel brilliance this summer as players dazzled fans across two WTA 250 events in Iași and Athens in the week after Wimbledon.

From impossible gets and feather-light touch to blistering winners under pressure, there was no shortage of spectacular shot-making on clay in Romania and hard courts in Greece.

We've rounded up our five favorite shots of the week. Check them out below, and make sure to vote for your favorite at the bottom.

Alina Korneeva's quickness stuns Sakkari in Athens

Former junior World No. 1 Alina Korneeva had an impressive week at the Vanda Pharmaceuticals Athens Open, knocking off No. 2 seed Ann Li and No. 7 seed Tereza Valentova en route to her second career semifinal at tour level.

Though she fell there to former Top 5 player Maria Sakkari, the 19-year-old left the Greek star impressed with her hustle early on in their semifinal match, as she strung together three quality gets before finishing the point with a forehand lob winner into the opposite corner.

Korneeva flashes her quickness early in Athens semifinal matchup with Sakkari

Tamara Zidansek slices on the stretch

Former Roland Garros semifinalist Tamara Zidansek had a resurgent week on the Iasi clay courts, where she won the joint-longest match of 2026 over Anna Bondar, the No. 7 seed, in the second round; upset No. 2 seed Petra Marcinko in the quarterfinals; and gave former World No. 2 Paula Badosa all she could handle in a marathon three-set semifinal before losing.

To earn her first Top 50 win on tour in five years, the former World No. 22 bunted Marcinko's powered in a second-set rally, before finishing the point with an elastic stretch and a superb angle on this sliced forehand squash shot.

Hot shot: A stretch and a slice by Tamara Zidansek in Iasi

Yulia Putintseva and the point that had everything

Three hours deep into her UniCredit Iasi Open quarterfinal against eventual champion Mayar Sherif, Yulia Putintseva came out on top of a 26-stroke exchange in the third-set tiebreak that culminated in a cat-and-mouse exchange at net.

 

Three hours deep, Putintseva wins epic 'point that had everything' in Iasi

Lilli Tagger's running forehand finisher

Lilli Tagger's rare one-handed backhand is one of the most distinctive shots on tour, but Sara Bejlek also had to keep a close eye on her forehand in this exchange. The teenager flashed her trademark stroke throughout the early second-round rally before breaking serve with a running forehand winner down the line.

Bejlek, however, had the final word, going on to seal a 6-2, 6-2 victory.

Hot shots: Come for Lilli Tagger's backhands, stay for the forehand in Athens

Oleksandra Olyniykova leaves Pridankina speechless

Oleksandra Olyniykova possesses one of the most unorthodox playing styles on the WTA tour, and she showed every tool in her toolbox in this cat-and-mouse point against Elena Pridankina in the Iasi second round. 

Already leading 6-1, 3-0, the Ukrainian drew Pridankina foreward early on in the point -- and though the 20-year-old kept up her reflexes early in the rally, she ultimately couldn't solve Olyniykova from the forecourt. On the 18th shot of the point, the Ukrainian went behind Pridankina with a backhand passing shot winner.

'Toying with her!' Oliynykova wins brilliant cat-and-mouse exchange in Iasi