Tagger and Rodionov earn first-round US Open wins

Lilli Tagger recovered from a dramatic second-set collapse to win her first Grand Slam main-draw match at the US Open. The 18-year-old Austrian defeated Germany’s Tamara Korpatsch 6-0, 7-6 (7-4).

Tagger led 4-0 in the second set before Korpatsch won five games in a row. The Austrian then saved two set points at 5-6 and fell 1-4 behind in the tiebreak. She responded by taking six straight points and sealed the match after one hour and 56 minutes with an ace.

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Absolutely.

Her reward is a second-round meeting with 10th-seeded American Amanda Anisimova, last year’s US Open runner-up. Tagger’s parents accompanied her to New York, and she said she was ready for the possibility of playing in a large stadium. She also said she had learned to stop focusing on the score after leading 6-0, 4-0.

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That is part of it, we are all human, and mistakes happen. The most important thing is to learn from them.

Korpatsch said she had become ill the day before the match, with a sore throat and low energy. She described the match as physically very difficult and said she was disappointed by how she felt.

Jurij Rodionov also reached the second round in his first US Open main draw. He beat Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 7-6 (7-2), 6-0, 7-6 (7-4), saving four match points at 5-6 in the third set before dominating the tiebreak. Vienna’s Sinja Kraus was eliminated by seventh-seeded Czech Karolina Muchova, losing 6-3, 6-0.

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The match was physically torturous for me. I am very disappointed with how I felt. It was not really enjoyable.