Amanda Anisimova Advances After Tough Match Against Lilli Tagger

Amanda Anisimova had to sweat for it. She also had to grow.

Last year’s US Open runner-up is back in the third round, but her 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 win over 18-year-old Lilli Tagger on Grandstand was anything but routine. For long stretches, the Austrian teenager – a debutant at this level – looked like she hadn’t read the script.

Anisimova, tipped by many as a genuine title threat again this fortnight, came out sharp and controlled in the opening set, leaning on that heavy first strike from the baseline to keep Tagger pinned back. She took it 6-3 and looked ready to move through the gears.

Tagger refused to play along.

The second set turned the match on its head. Tagger broke Anisimova in the opening game of the set, caught her flat-footed a few times, and began swinging with the freedom of someone who doesn’t yet know how big this stage is supposed to feel. Anisimova’s level dipped, the errors crept in, and suddenly the teenager had dragged the contest into a decider, 6-3 to Tagger.

That is where Anisimova showed why she is seeded 10 and why so many still talk about her as a future major champion.

She reset. She tightened the patterns. She went after Tagger’s serve.

An early break for 2-0 steadied her, but the third game became the real test. At 3-0, Anisimova pressed again and the pair produced their best tennis of the afternoon in a brutal, extended service game that ran past nine minutes. Anisimova carved out six break points; Tagger saved them all with gutsy hitting and fearless shot-making, even earning a game point of her own.

Each time the Austrian thought she had wriggled free, Anisimova’s forehand arrived like a hammer. One savage return on the Tagger advantage felt like a line in the sand. The American finally broke for 4-0, and with it, broke the back of the match.

From there, she didn’t look back. The serve, shaky in the second set, began to flow again. The forehand, already one of the most explosive on tour, started to dictate relentlessly. Anisimova swept through the decider 6-1, closing out a match that had threatened to become a story of squandered momentum.

She will be better for this. Stretched by a teenager in only her first main-draw appearance here, Anisimova had to find a higher gear under pressure, and she did. She now moves into round three, where Anastasia Potapova or Leolia Jeanjean awaits, and looming beyond that is a projected fourth-round showdown with Mirra Andreeva – a potential blockbuster between two of the game’s most compelling young shot-makers.

As for Tagger, she leaves with a loss on the scoreboard but a marker firmly laid down. At 18, on one of the sport’s biggest stages, she pushed last year’s finalist into a corner and made her fight her way out. On this evidence, the young Austrian is going nowhere.