CHENNAI: JANICE Tjen rounded off an incredible season by capturing her first WTA 250 tour level title, beating Kimberley Birrell 6-4 6-3 in the singles final in the Chennai Open at the SDAT Stadium here on Sunday.
Before this tournament, Tjen attained her career-best rank of 80 (from 580 last year). Currently, she is ranked 82 and is likely to go up after this win. She also becomes the first Indonesian to win a singles title in 23 years, since Angelique Widjaja won the PTT Thailand Open in 2002. For Australian Birrell, her hunt for a WTA title continues. She lost her second 250 level final, her first loss coming at Osaka (Japan) last year.
After mounting a incredible comeback to beat Joanna Garland in Saturday's semifinal, Birrell found it difficult to get going in the summit clash. One game in the first set that the crowd at the centre court enjoyed was the fourth game. After leading 3-1, only by converting advantage points to match wins, the fourth game got the crowd off their seats.
Eleven deuces and six breakpoints, but Birrell failed to convert her opportunities. That was the story throughout the match, as she managed to convert only two of her six break points into wins. Tjen, meanwhile, ensured she converted hers with her strong forehand returns and backhand slices.
After winning the first set 6-4, Tjen took a 4-1 lead. It seemed like Birrell was slowly losing her grip on the match. It needs to be noted that in her 3 hour 24 minute long semifinal against Joanna Garland, she had come back from 5-0 down in the third set to win the match. She was presented a similar situation, which she initially seized it by bring it to 4-3. However, Tjen, ensured that "I stayed true to my game."
"I don't think (the comeback ran in my mind). But she played well in those two games. I tried my best to convert one of my best to convert those games but I couldn't. But I trusted my game and stuck to it," she added.
Later in the day, Tjen, along with her compatriot Aldila Sutjiadi defeated Storm Hunter and Monica Niculescu in straight sets.
Results: Singles: J Tjen bt K Birrell 6-4, 6-3; Doubles: Tjen/Sutjiadi bt Hunter/Niculescu 7-5, 6-4.