Klugman misses out on rare British juniors win
French Open 2025Dates: 25 May-8 June Venue: Roland GarrosCoverage: Live radio commentaries across 5 Live Sport and BBC Sounds, plus live text commentaries on the BBC Sport website and app
Teenager Hannah Klugman was unable to become the first Briton in almost 50 years to win a French Open juniors title after losing in the girls' singles final.The 16-year-old, competing in her first junior Grand Slam singles final, was beaten 6-2 6-0 by Austria's Lilli Tagger.Klugman, ranked 13th in the world junior rankings, was aiming to emulate Britain's Michelle Tyler, who won the French Open girls' title in 1976."It's been a long week but I'm really proud of myself," said an emotional Klugman.Despite the defeat, Klugman's performances in Paris underlined her huge potential.The London-born player had little experience on clay until spending two months practising on the surface earlier this year - including spending a few days at Rafael Nadal's academy in Spain.After her semi-final victory, Klugman said the advice she received from 14-time French Open men's champion Nadal had helped give her more belief.But Tagger, who recently beat French Open women's semi-finalist Lois Boisson in a lower-tier IFT Tour final, had too much quality for the Briton.
Klugman shot to wider prominence when, as a 14-year-old, she won the prestigious Orange Bowl junior championships in Florida in 2023.Past winners include French Open finalist Coco Gauff, as well as Grand Slam champions Chris Evert, Caroline Wozniacki and Bianca Andreescu.Klugman has also contested two Grand Slam girls' doubles finals, losing the 2023 Wimbledon and this year's Australian Open trophy matches.But defeat by 17-year-old Tagger - who played well above her junior ranking of 47th in the world - completed an unwanted hat-trick of defeats.Klugman needed to show fight in both quarter-final and semi-final victories, coming back from a set down before winning - but she could not do the same against Tagger.Tagger was solid from the baseline and used her elegant one-handed backhand - an increasingly rare sight - to great effect. Klugman had break points in the first and seventh games of the opening set, but dropping her own serve in the fourth game proved decisive.The high-quality baseline exchanges continued in the second set, but Tagger edged them again to break at her first opportunity.From that point, Klugman's confidence began to drain.She fell 4-0 behind after producing a double fault on break point and won just five more points as Tagger confidently secured victory.
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