A qualifier who saved three match points in the semis, Harriet Dart fought back to beat teenager Lilli Tagger and claim her first tour-level trophy.
Harriet Dart has finally got her hands on a WTA trophy. At 30, the British player came from a set down to beat 18-year-old Austrian Lilli Tagger 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the Guangzhou Open final in China.
Dart came into the tournament as a qualifier and was playing her first tour-level final. Her path to the title was anything but smooth. In the semi-final against Sun Xinran she saved three match points, surviving a moment that could easily have ended her run.
The final was a contest of experience against youth. Tagger, still a teenager, took the opening set and looked to have the momentum. Dart steadied herself, raised her level in the second set and levelled the match, then held her nerve through a tense decider to close it out.
For Dart, the title is a long-awaited breakthrough after years on the circuit, and proof that persistence can pay off late in a career. For Tagger, the defeat stings, but reaching a tour final this young marks her out as a name to watch in the seasons ahead.
