Amanda Anisimova Advances with Tough Win Over Lilli Tagger

Amanda Anisimova walked off Grandstand with a reminder for the rest of the draw: she is not going away quietly this fortnight.

Stretched to three sets by 18‑year‑old Austrian debutant Lilli Tagger, last year’s beaten finalist steadied herself when it mattered most, closing out a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 win to reach the third round of the US Open. It was not smooth, it was not straightforward, but it was the kind of scrap that can harden a contender.

Tagger, playing her first main draw in New York, came out swinging and never really stopped. She broke Anisimova in the opening game of the second set, wrestled the momentum away, and forced the American to feel the weight of expectation that comes with being both a seed and a popular outside pick for the title.

For a spell, Anisimova looked rattled. The first set had gone by in clean, controlled lines – 6-3, businesslike, with the American’s weight of shot doing most of the talking. Tagger’s response in the second was to change the tone entirely, taking the ball early, going after returns, and making Anisimova play that extra ball she did not want.

The reward was a deserved 6-3 set of her own. Suddenly, the court felt smaller for Anisimova, the targets tighter, the margin for error thinner. Tagger, loose and fearless, had nothing to protect and everything to chase.

That is usually the danger zone for a higher seed. This time, it became the turning point.

At 1-0 in the decider, Anisimova broke for 2-0, a crucial reset after the wobble of the second set. Tagger refused to fold, dragging the third game out past nine minutes, saving break point after break point with bold hitting and nerveless serving. Anisimova kept coming, kept swinging, kept trusting the forehand that has always been her weapon and her barometer.

On a sixth break point, she finally cracked the resistance, then ripped through the hold for 4-0. That was the moment the match broke open. The scoreboard said one thing; the body language said the rest. Anisimova stood taller, shoulders looser, her game suddenly flowing again. Tagger, who had carried herself with such defiance, now had to chase a player who had rediscovered her range.

From there, the American did not look back. The third set ran away from Tagger, 6-1, but that scoreline hides how much work Anisimova had to do to earn it. She had been pushed to find a higher gear, and she found it.

The win sends Anisimova into round three, where Anastasia Potapova or Leolia Jeanjean will await. Beyond that, the draw teases a potential round‑of‑16 showdown with Mirra Andreeva, a meeting of shotmakers that already feels like one of the matches this tournament owes us.

As for Tagger, this is not the last time her name will surface in a second-week conversation. She arrived as a teenager making her US Open debut; she leaves this match having forced a title contender into a deciding set and into some uncomfortable questions. The talent is obvious. The temperament, today, matched it.

Anisimova, though, is the one still standing, and crucially, a little tougher than she was when she walked on court.