
Jones misses out on French Open girls final dream
Emerson Jones' dreams of becoming the first Australian to win the French Open girls' singles title in 57 years are over.
The Gold Coast local, who turns 17 on July 7, has fallen at the semi-final stage, bowing out to Lilli Tagger 6-4 7-6 (7-5).
The 17-year-old Austrian also dented Jones' hopes of regaining her junior world No.1 ranking and denied her the chance to take on her doubles partner in Saturday's final.
Britain's Hannah Klugman won through to her maiden grand slam final after a resilient 1-6 6-3 6-3 defeat of Bulgarian Rositsa Dencheva. She is the first British player to reach a French Open juniors final in almost 50 years.
Jones had hoped to make history herself. Australia's last winner of the girls singles title at Roland Garros was Perth-born Lesley Hunt, who triumphed in 1968.
She accounted for Capucine Jauffret, of the United States, and Czechia's Vendula Valdmannova, a Wimbledon semi-finalist last year, both in three sets earlier in the week.
Then came a straight-sets victory over Spain's Charo Esquiva Banuls on Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals, where she beat another American Julieta Pareja, the No.9 seed, 7-5 6-4.
But although she had beaten Tagger at this year's Australian Open in a hard-fought 4-6 6-2 6-2 quarter-final tussle, this time the Austrian had the answers.

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