Janice Tjen’s rise to becoming the No. 1 women’s player in Indonesia has included one WTA singles title and three doubles championships.
The 23-year-old reached No. 53 in the WTA singles rankings in November and her coaches predicted then the best was yet to come.
Tjen demonstrated that improvement with a first-round upset of Canada’s Leylah Fernandez on Tuesday at the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Fernandez, of Laval, Que., was seeded 22nd in the major tournament, but was bounced 6-2, 7-6 (1) in one hour 43 minutes.
Tjen finished with four aces, 17 winners, six double faults and 27 unforced errors. Fernandez had two aces, 16 winners, five double faults and 28 unforced errors.
Fernandez won two of eight break points and two of 10 return games, while Tjen took four of seven break points and won four of 10 return games.
Tjen advances to play Karolina Pliskova of Czechia.
Mboko keeps winning
In opening-round women’s doubles action, Toronto’s Victoria Mboko — the only Canadian woman to win her first-round singles match — teamed up with American Iva Jovic to defeat Ulrikke Eikeri of Norway and Ingrid Neel of Estonia 7-5, 6-3 in one hour 31 minutes.
Mboko and Jovic finished with three aces, two double faults and won 70 per cent of their points on first serve. They dominated in return games, winning four of 10 games, compared to Eikeri and Neel’s two of 11.
Eikeri and Neel had two aces, four double faults and won 61 per cent of their points on first serve.
Mboko and Jovic will play the winner of a match between Romania’s Sorana Cirstea and Russian Anna Kalinskaya against the fourth-seeded pairing of Elise Mertens of Belgium and Shuai Zhang of China.
Sinner advances quicker than usual
Jannik Sinner dropped just three games and spent little over an hour on Rod Laver Arena to get his bid for an Australian Open three-peat started.
The No. 2-ranked Sinner was leading 6-2, 6-1 when Hugo Gaston suddenly retired from their match Tuesday night with an undisclosed injury.
“I saw that he was not serving with a very high pace in the second set,” Sinner said, but “it’s not the way you want to win the match.”
It was an anti-climatic way to finish his first competitive match on the center court at Melbourne Park since his victory 12 months ago over Alexander Zverev to clinch back-to-back Australian titles.
He’s aiming to become the fourth player to win three consecutive men’s titles at the Australian Open.
Madison Keys had a tougher start to her title defence, struggling early against the offbeat style of Oleksandra Oliynykova before advancing 7-6 (6), 6-1.
Ninth-seeded Keys, playing in her 50th Grand Slam tournament, trailed 4-0 before she rallied to force a tiebreaker against the Ukrainian.
“Obviously I was very nervous at the start,” Keys said. “As nervous as I was . . . I’m really glad to be back, and that I got through that match.”
Different strokes
Oliynykova kept her opponent off-stride with her unorthodox shot-making and strong defense. “A little bit more of like an unconventional style,” Keys said. “I feel like that made things a little extra tricky at the start. I felt like at the end of the tiebreaker I really kind of found my game and then was able to carry that into the second set.”
Oliynykova gained a lot of attention with her unique body art and ink, and a printed message for Ukraine on a T-shirt she wore in her post-match news conference.
Another seeded women’s player was ousted in straight sets early on Day 3, with Tereza Valentova beating Australia’s Maya Joint.
Former U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens was beaten in the first round by Karolina Pliskova 7-6 (7), 6-2. Stephens, who had to qualify this year, won the U.S. Open in 2017.
Shelton advances
In a match between left-handers, Ben Shelton, a semifinalist a year ago in Australia, overcame Ugo Humbert 6-3, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (5) to reach the second round.
The No. 8 seed said it was one of the toughest first-round matches he could have faced, with Humbert ranked No. 33. Humbert had the highest ranking of the unseeded players.
“I thought I stayed really calm today,” Shelton said. “On a court like this, playing Ugo in the first round is a tough draw. I felt I found some of my better tennis late in the match.”
He’ll next face Australian qualifier Dane Sweeny, who ended the 20th and final Australian Open campaign for 39-year-old Frenchman Gael Monfils.
Fifth-seeded Lorenzo Musetti advanced when Raphael Collignon retired in the fourth set. The score was 4-6, 7-6 (3), 7-5, 3-2 when the Belgian player quit because of cramping and dizziness.
Also advancing were Eliot Spizzirri, who beat rising star Joao Fonseca, the 19-year-old Brazilian, 6-4, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2, No. 15 Karen Khachanov and Sebastian Baez, who outlasted Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3.
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