Tagger saves three match points but falls to Ann Li in Osaka quarters

Lilli Tagger took the top seed all the way to a deciding tie-break in the Osaka quarter-finals on Friday, but the Austrian teenager's run at the WTA 250 event ended there. Ann Li won 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(0) after 2 hours and 16 minutes, closing out the match without dropping a point in the breaker.

Tagger, 18, had come into the match as the world No. 57. Li, ranked 25th, is the top seed at the Japan Open. It was their first meeting.

Three match points saved, then a 7-0 breaker

Li won the first set 6-4 on the back of strong serving. Tagger hit back in the second, broke the American and levelled the match by taking the set 6-3.

The third set went with serve until the end, and Tagger kept herself alive more than once. According to Austrian outlet Laola1, she saved one match point at 4-5 and two more at 5-6 to force the tie-break. That was as far as it went. Li played a near-perfect tie-break and took it 7-0 to reach the semi-finals.

Li's semi-final opponent will be the winner of the next quarter-final on centre court, between Australia's Talia Gibson (WTA 42) and American Ashlyn Krueger (WTA 55).

A week that showed Tagger's progress

Despite the loss, Osaka was another clear step forward for the player from East Tyrol. She opened with a 6-3, 6-3 upset of fifth seed Liudmila Samsonova, her second win over the Russian this year. In that match she converted all three of her break points, faced none on her own serve and finished with 19 winners to nine unforced errors in 72 minutes.

In the second round she beat Tereza Valentová 7-5, 6-3, getting revenge for an earlier defeat by the Czech teenager. Against Li she took a set off the top seed and came within a few points of a first semi-final in Japan.

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Her one-handed backhand has become her trademark, and in Osaka she again used it to trouble opponents ranked well above her. On Friday she was close to matching the top seed, but Li was the steadier player in the tie-break that decided it.

Doubles still to come in Osaka

Tagger's week in Osaka is not quite over. She is still alive in doubles with Dutch partner Isabelle Haverlag, and the pair have reached the semi-finals. There they face the top-seeded team of Storm Hunter and Janice Tjen.

Li, who beat Zeynep Sönmez 6-3, 6-1 in the previous round, is now two wins away from the title as top seed. Whoever comes through between Gibson and Krueger will face a player who has just won a tie-break without losing a single point to stay in the draw.