Lilli Tagger beat Daria Snigur 7-6 (7-3) 6-2 to win her first WTA Tour title at the Prague Open, ensuring she will climb into the top 50 of the world rankings.

The 18-year-old needed an hour and a half to overcome the eighth seed, with the Austrian's consistent quality of serve allowing her to stay on the front foot for the big points.

She racked up nine aces to Snigur's one, while committing just two double faults to her opponent's seven, as the momentum steadily swung further her way throughout the match.

The first break of the encounter went Snigur's way in the second game, though Tagger struck back in game nine to ensure the first set went to a tie-break, which she dictated via a run of five points won in seven.

The second set was more straightforward as Tagger only gave up three points on her own serve and applied relentless pressure to that of Snigur, breaking the Ukrainian's resistance in games four and eight to secure the trophy.

Elsewhere, Tamara Korpatsch beat Anna Bondar 6-3 6-3 in the showpiece match at the Hamburg Open, becoming the first German champion at that event since Steffi Graf won six straight editions from 1987 to 1992.

It is Korpatsch's second WTA Tour title but her first since 2023, when she was triumphant at the Transylvania Open against Elena-Gabriela Ruse.

Tagger breaks through in Prague

Tagger was already the youngest player to ever reach the Prague Open final, and she will now be the youngest player in the top 50 of the next edition of the WTA Rankings.

Having sat 74th in the rankings going into this week, Tagger is the lowest-ranked player to win the Prague title and just the second to triumph in the Czech capital while outside the top 50, after Maria Bouzkova took the trophy in 2022 while ranked 66th. 

Tagger won an imperious 81% of her first-serve points (29/36), in addition to 56% on her second serve (15/27).

Those figures proved key to her success, with Snigur only achieving a 68% success rate on her first serve (27/40) and a 36% mark on her second (9/25).