WTA Luxembourg: 18-year-old Clara Tauson is in the final
The young Danish Clara Tauson reaches her second final on the WTA Tour at the WTA hard court event in Luxembourg. There she meets the number three of the tournament Jelena Ostapenko.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Sep 18, 2021, 07:45 pm
The young women hit the big attack on the WTA tour. After the sensational run of British Emma Raducanu from qualification to the title of the US Open 2021, the next great talent is already in the starting blocks. The 18-year-old Clara Tauson reached the final at the WTA Tour 250 event in Luxembourg, where she meets the three seeded Latvian Jelena Ostapenko. For the Dane, after her debut title at the hard court tournament in Lyon in March, it is the second final of the season and also of her career.
Tauson defeated the fifth seeded Czech Marketa Vondrousova in her semifinals after 2:03 hours of play with 6: 2, 2: 6, 6: 4. The teenager from the vicinity of Copenhagen proved her current top form with 41 winning strokes and only 20 unforced mistakes. Vondrousova, silver medal winner at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, only had the upper hand in set number two, in the other two rounds the northern European was mostly on the trigger.
Will Ostapenko manage to defend his title?
Ostapenko, who won the title at the last WTA event in Luxembourg in 2019, fought the Russian Liudmila Samsonova 6: 1, 7: 6 (4). The Baltin was already leading 6: 1, 5: 1, but then failed to serve twice. In the tie-break of the second round, things initially looked better for Samsonova, but with six points in a row, the lady from Riga finally secured the ticket for her tenth career final.
At the 250 hard court tournament in Portoroz, Slovenia, the final is Alison Riske against Jasmine Paolini. The American defeated the local hero Katja Juvan 6: 0, 6: 4, while the Italian defeated the second seeded Yulia Putintseva from Kazakhstan with 1: 6, 6: 3, 6: 4. For the 20-year-old Paolini, it is the first participation in the final at the WTA Tour level.