Tagger and McDonald land junior silverware

With her win, Tagger becomes the first Austrian player to win a Roland-Garros junior singles title.

Tagger, who didn’t drop a set across her six matches at Porte d’Auteil, has been coached by Roland-Garros 2010 women’s champion Francesca Schiavone since October 2023.

“Of course I've seen her play. I think it was two days ago when I watched the video of her winning here. She's the Queen of the clay,” the teenager said with a smile.

“I can learn a lot from her game, and she's teaching me also a lot.

“Today, we talked of course about the tactical part, because I knew my opponent, but the most important thing she told me was to go out there, enjoy the moment.”

Back in March, Tagger edged Klugman 6-4, 6-7(7), 6-3 en route to taking her maiden professional title at the W35 Terrassa in Spain.

However, on Saturday Klugman said Tagger “broke me physically and mentally,” firing 19 winners past the junior world No.13 with her graceful slice and exquisite clay-court movement. The single-handed backhand is reminiscent of Schiavone’s too; Tagger has a game that will marvel crowds for many years to come.

“It’s a dream come true,” said the ambitious 17-year-old. “I'm just super happy and proud.

“Of course it's really, really special to win this tournament here, but in the juniors I think from all of us the goal is to come here to play the women’s tournament.

“It's an inspiration to watch the top women play, and we focus of course on our tournament, try to win it. Yes, it's a great win. It gives you a lot of inspiration to continue to work.”

Tagger has been particularly inspired by the top-ranked players in the main draw.

“In tennis, in the men's part, I love Jannik (Sinner). I really love him, how he is mentally on the court and also his style of the game,” continued the Austrian.

“The girls, Aryna Sabalenka. She's different from the other ones. She has a different attitude.

“In general in the sports, I really like to ski, so I watch it also a bit, and I like Mikaela Shiffrin or Lindsey Vonn and try to learn from them.”

Niels McDonald roared back to claim the title in the first all-German boys’ singles final at Roland-Garros, with a 6-7(5), 6-0, 6-3 victory over Max Schoenhaus.

The two unseeded 17-year-olds produced a compelling battle, meeting at the net for a hug and exchange of congratulations.

“It’s a huge honour to win this tournament,” said McDonald, the third German boys’ singles champion in Paris after Ingo Buding (1959-60) and Daniel Elsner (1997). "Probably a lot of legends have won this.

"But also, it's just one step of a big goal and dream I'm chasing that I started with in my early years. Today, tomorrow we can celebrate, then we keep working to maybe play here on the big stage one day."

McDonald, born in Cardiff, Wales, and holding both British and German citizenship, suggests a shift in mentality prompted his outsider triumph in the French capital.

“I always knew I had the game and that I had the level to play well here and to win this. It's just I was struggling with my mentality on the court,” McDonald admitted.

“I was a bit nervous on the court and would crash down a bit with pretty negative thoughts. I panicked a bit.

“I talked to my coach a lot and asked ‘Okay, what can we change to get better mentally on court?’ And we changed up some stuff here. I stayed positive all week.

“We usually put the phone away one hour and 30 minutes before a match and usually put on some music. We get in the zone, just to focus and think about the match, because then if you get a boost of nervousness, you're prepared.”

Another German pair - Eva Bennemann and Sonja Zhenikhova - took the girls' doubles title with a 4-6, 6-4, 10-8 win over Czech sisters Alena and Jana Kovackova.

Earlier on Court 6, the second seeded duo of Oskari Paldanius and Alan Wazny beat the all-American pairing of Noah Johnston and Benjamin Willwerth 6-2, 6-3 to claim the boys' doubles title.