Austrian teenager Lilli Tagger and her one-handed backhand just cracked the Top 100

Most of the focus on the new rankings this week was on No. 1 exchanging hands on the men’s side, with Jannik Sinner taking the top spot back from Carlos Alcaraz after Monte Carlo.

But further down the rankings—and on the WTA rankings—one of the most unique players on the tour made a big breakthrough, as Austrian teenager Lilli Tagger broke into the Top 100 for the first time, jumping from No. 117 to No. 97 after reaching her first WTA 500 quarterfinal on home soil in Linz.

So how is she unique?

First of all, she’s one of the youngest players on the tour, just turning 18 in February—she’s actually the first player born in 2008 to crack the Top 100 of either the WTA or ATP rankings.

But at the same time she has a classic style, playing with a one-handed backhand—a rare sight on the women’s tour, and especially for an up-and-comer on the women’s tour.

And it’s fitting that she’s currently being coached by Francesca Schiavone, the last woman with a one-handed backhand to win a Grand Slam title, at Roland Garros in 2010.

Tagger’s vintage style has already brought her success.

Last June she captured the junior title at Roland Garros, and it was a notable run—unseeded, she took out four seeded players in six matches en route to the title, including the No. 1 and No. 3 seeds, and she did it without dropping a set.

Only one of those sets even went to a tie-break.

Last fall, in her very first WTA main draw at the WTA 250 hard-court event in Jiujiang, China, she made it all the way to the first WTA final of her career as a No. 235-ranked wild card, eventually finishing runner-up to Anna Blinkova.

And as mentioned above, last week she reached her first WTA 500 quarterfinal in Linz, taking out a No. 21-ranked Liudmila Samsonova en route for the biggest win of her career to date.

Tagger is now one of four women with one-handed backhands in the Top 100, alongside 30-somethings Tatjana Maria of Germany (No. 63) and Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland (No. 81) and 23-year-old Frenchwoman Diane Parry (No. 100).

She'll continue her clay-court season this week in Rouen, France, a WTA 250-level event, where she opens against Ukraine’s Oleksandra Oliynykova on Wednesday.