Tjen makes recent history with Chennai title sweep

Indonesia's Janice Tjen made recent Hologic WTA Tour history on Sunday at the Chennai Open as the first player from her country to win a tour-level singles title in 23 years. 

In the title match at the WTA 250 stop in India, the 23-year-old former Pepperdine University star added another milestone to a season of firsts this year with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Australia's Kimberly Birrell. 

Chennai: Scores | Draws | Order of play

The last Indonesian player to win a singles title was Angelique Widjaja, who won the second and final of her tour-level crowns in Pattaya City in 2002. Tjen finishing the job she started in Sao Paulo last month -- where she reached her first tour-level singles final -- will see her pass Widjaja in another statistic.

Ranked outside the Top 500 at this time last year, Tjen's triumph will push her at World No. 53 in the PIF WTA Rankings on Monday, surpassing Widjaja's career best of No. 55 -- and making her the second-highest ranked Indonesian player in history after former No. 19 Yayuk Basuki. Five wins in Chennai push her singles record this season to a staggering 77-15: a mark which has also seen her reach a final at every level of the ITF World Tennis Tour (winning six), and capture her first WTA 125 title, too.

A 13-deuce fourth game helped push Tjen out to an early lead against Birrell -- but she didn't wrestle command of the match away until three games later. Birrell, also contesting her second career tour-level final, equalized the opener at 3-3 before Tjen went on a tear. She won seven of the next eight games to establish a sizable 6-3, 4-0 cushion.

But Birrell, who came from 5-0 down in the third set and saved five match points against Chinese Taipei's Joanna Garland in the semifinals, wouldn't be easily beaten. She won three straight games -- and had break point for a fourth, and 4-4 -- before Tjen put a bow on the match. 

"I think I played better every round ... and today, I got to play some of my best tennis," Tjen said afterwards. "She's very gritty. We saw from the first round that she can come back any time. ... She's a very experienced player, so it's never easy to play someone like Kim. I'm glad to be able to win today."

Tjen added to her haul later in the day in the doubles final: She and compatriot Aldila Sutjiadi, the No. 2 seeds, upset No. 1 seeds Storm Hunter and Monica Niculescu in the doubles final, 7-5, 6-4.

She is the third player this season to win the singles and doubles titles at the same event, after Jasmine Paolini (Rome) and Maya Joint (Rabat).