Amanda Anisimova Survives Tough Match Against Lilli Tagger at US Open
Amanda Anisimova walked off Grandstand with a reminder for the rest of the draw: she can suffer, wobble, then rip a match away in a hurry.
Last year’s beaten finalist needed three sets and a serious reset to subdue 18‑year‑old Austrian debutant Lilli Tagger, eventually prevailing 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 to reach the US Open third round. The scoreline looks routine. The match was anything but.
Anisimova bends, then bites back
Anisimova opened like a player who knows this court and this tournament. She took the first set 6-3, her heavier weight of shot steadily pushing Tagger back. For a while, it felt like the script everyone expected: the 10th seed, a popular outside pick for the title, easing through against a teenager on her first main-draw appearance in New York.
Tagger tore that script up in the second.
The Austrian, already widely regarded as a serious prospect, broke Anisimova in the opening game of the set and refused to blink. Her serve tightened, her groundstrokes bit deeper, and she dragged the American into longer, more physical rallies. Anisimova’s level dipped just enough, Tagger’s belief surged, and the youngster pocketed the second set 6-3 to level the match.
Suddenly, the runner-up was in a street fight.
A nine‑minute arm wrestle that broke the match open
The decider turned on one brutal, breathless game.
Anisimova had already steadied herself with an early break and a hold for 2-0, reclaiming control after the shock of that second set. Serving at 0-2, Tagger dug in. The game stretched past nine minutes. Anisimova carved out break point after break point – six in all – only for Tagger to keep swatting them away, refusing to let the match run away from her.
Each rally grew in quality and intensity. Tagger earned an advantage of her own. Anisimova ripped it away with a savage forehand return, the kind of shot that doesn’t just win a point, it sends a message.
The pressure finally told. Anisimova broke for 3-0, then again for 4-0, “breaking the back of the match”, as it felt in real time. From there, the American surged. The forehand that had flickered through the first two sets now roared, her weight of shot pinning Tagger behind the baseline. She held for 5-0, the match suddenly racing away from the teenager who had pushed her so hard.
Tagger did at least get on the board at 1-5, a small reward for a performance that hinted at much more to come. Anisimova, though, shut the door in style, sealing the third set 6-1 and with it a place in round three.
She had been stretched. She will be stronger for it.
A teenager to remember
Defeat should not disguise what Tagger produced. At 18, on debut, she broke the previous year’s finalist, took a set, and forced Anisimova into the trenches. She absorbed the occasion, handled the swings, and showed enough ball‑striking and resilience to mark herself out as a name to file away for the future.
This will not be the last time she troubles a seed at a major. Far from it.
What comes next
Anisimova now moves into the third round, where she will face Anastasia Potapova or Leolia Jeanjean. Win that, and she is seeded to meet Mirra Andreeva in a potential round‑four blockbuster – a match-up that already feels like one of the most enticing possibilities of the second week.
She left Grandstand having survived a scare, rediscovered her bite as the tension rose, and reminded the field why so many see her as a genuine contender in New York.
Tagger left with a loss, but also with something more valuable at 18: proof that her game belongs on this stage, against this calibre of opponent.
