Guangzhou Final Set: Dart Saves Three Match Points to Reach First Tour Final Against Tagger
The final is set at the Guangzhou Open in China after two very different semi-finals on Saturday: Britain's Harriet Dart will face fourth-seeded Lilli Tagger of Austria for the WTA 250 title on Sunday, in their first meeting on tour.
Dart, a 30-year-old qualifier, rallied for a 5-7, 7-6 (1), 6-0 victory against 16-year-old Chinese wildcard Xinran Sun in two hours and 29 minutes. She survived three match points in the 10th game of the second set before racing through the tiebreak and winning the deciding set without dropping a game. It is the first WTA Tour singles final of her career, and a title would put her back inside the world's top 100.
Tagger took a far shorter route, needing just 52 minutes to complete a 6-2, 6-0 win over Spain's Kaitlin Quevedo. She won all 19 points on her first serve, including five aces, and never faced a break point. Earlier in the week she had also beaten Venus Williams 6-2, 6-2.
Sun, the last Chinese player in the draw, pushed Dart for nearly two and a half hours and held three match points in the second set before falling short, according to Reuters.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：英国网球选手 Harriet Dart 在比赛中（资料图）。照片：Andrew Campbell，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Britain's Harriet Dart during a match (file photo). Photo by Andrew Campbell, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
