Roland Garros 2025: Hannah Klugman finishes runner-up in junior girls singles final
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British teenager Hannah Klugman finished runner-up in the Roland Garros girls' singles junior final after falling short to Austrian Lilli Tagger.
The 16-year-old Brit became the first British player to reach the junior finals at Roland Garros in 49 years but narrowly missed out on the title after Tagger secured a 6-2, 6-0 victory on a packed out Court Simonne-Mathieu.
Despite the final loss, Klugman will leave Paris with plenty to be proud of after reaching her first final at a junior Grand Slam.
“I want to start off by saying congratulations to Lilli, honestly you deserve it so much”, Klugman said after.
“You broke me mentally and physically today. It’s been a long week, I’m proud of myself, I’m very tired it’s been a long week. I want to thank my team, for all of the hard work – it means a lot.
“The crowd, you were amazing, I’ve never played in an atmosphere like this so thank you so much. Hopefully I’ll be back some time in the seniors so thank you so much.”
Klugman made a bright start in the final battle, bringing up a break point on the Austrian’s serve during the first game of the match before saving two of her own in the following game.
The pair continued to exchange powerful blows from the baseline but a costly double fault from the Brit’s racket in the fourth game proved decisive as Tagger went on to take the opening set.
Having come back from a set down in both her quarter-final and semi-final wins, Klugman was eager to fight back once again but Tagger’s aggressive game made it tricky for 16-year-old Brit to stamp her authority on the match.
They continued to go toe-to-toe in the second but with all the momentum swinging in her favour, Tagger was spurred on a clean run of six games to wrap up the victory and etch her name in the history books.
The young Briton is supported by our Pro Scholarship Programme, presented by Lexus – the highest level of support for British rising stars with the best chance of reaching the WTA/ATP top 100 singles within five years.
Despite it still being early days in her career, Klugman has been at the top of the junior game over the past couple of years. In 2023, she became the first British girl to win the prestigious Orange Bowl trophy and has reached a career-high ranking of world No.4 in the junior rankings.
Alongside finishing runner-up in Paris, Klugman also reached the girls’ doubles final at the Australian Open earlier this year with Emerson Jones, as well as the girls’ doubles Wimbledon final in 2023 alongside Isabelle Lacy.
