TEEN SENSATION Hannah Klugman started to sob after her French Open final thrashing and admitted: I was broken mentally and physically.
One of the most exciting young talents in British tennis was trounced 6-2 6-0 in 77 minutes by Austrian Lilli Tagger in the finale to the girls’ singles competition.
Klugman, 16, struggled to cope with the windy conditions on Court Simonne-Mathieu.
The Kingston-upon-Thames schoolgirl was trying to become the first Brit to win the Roland Garros junior championship since Michelle Tyler in 1976.
Wiping away the tears, she said: “I want to start off by saying congratulations to Lilli. Honestly, you deserve it so much.
“You broke me mentally and physically today. It’s been a long week. I’m really 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.”
Seventeen-year-old Tagger – who did not drop a trophy set in the event – secured the title with a 23-minute second set, winning 24 out of 35 points.
For Klugman, there are major lessons to be learned on clay – she had little experience on the surface until spending two months practising on it earlier this year.
That included a few days at Rafael Nadal’s academy in Spain where she caught the eye of the 22-time Major singles winner.
Past winners of the title include future Grand Slam champions Jennifer Capriati, Martina Hingis, Amélie Mauresmo, Justine Henin, Coco Gauff.
Klugman had also contested two Grand Slam girls’ doubles finals but lost in 2023 at Wimbledon and this year’s Australian Open.
Read the full article here
