Klugman shot to wider prominence when, as a 14-year-old, she won the prestigious Orange Bowl junior championships in Florida in 2023.
Past winners include French Open finalist Coco Gauff, as well as Grand Slam champions Chris Evert, Caroline Wozniacki and Bianca Andreescu.
Klugman has also contested two Grand Slam girls’ doubles finals, losing the 2023 Wimbledon and this year’s Australian Open trophy matches.
But defeat by 17-year-old Tagger – who played well above her junior ranking of 47th in the world – completed an unwanted hat-trick of defeats.
Klugman needed to show fight in both quarter-final and semi-final victories, coming back from a set down before winning – but she could not do the same against Tagger.
Tagger was solid from the baseline and used her elegant one-handed backhand – an increasingly rare sight – to great effect.
Klugman had break points in the first and seventh games of the opening set, but dropping her own serve in the fourth game proved decisive.
The high-quality baseline exchanges continued in the second set, but Tagger edged them again to break at her first opportunity.
From that point, Klugman’s confidence began to drain.
She fell 4-0 behind after producing a double fault on break point and won just five more points as Tagger confidently secured victory.
