Tjen upsets No. 22 Fernandez, Valentova stuns No. 30 Joint in Melbourne

For the second straight Grand Slam, Janice Tjen has taken out a seeded opponent in the opening round.

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Tjen upset No. 22 seed Leylah Fernandez 6-2, 7-6 (1) in 1 hour and 43 minutes on a hot, sunny Tuesday afternoon in Melbourne to reach the second round -- just months after knocking off No. 24 seed Veronika Kudermetova to open her US Open campaign.

Her win was one of several surprises to kick off Day 3 of the Australian Open. Moments before Tjen closed out her match at ANZ Areana, Tereza Valentova delivered a stunner of her own, defeating No. 30 seed and Australian No. 1 Maya Joint 6-4, 6-4 in 1 hour and 32 minutes at John Cain Arena for the third Grand Slam main-draw victory of her career.

For Tjen, it’s the second Grand Slam win of her career and her first at the Australian Open in her tournament debut. She's the first Indonesian player to win an Australian Open main-draw match since Yayuk Basuki in 1998. Basuki went on to reach the fourth round that year.

“I’m very happy to be a part of history and be able to get a win here for Indonesia,” Tjen said in her post-match press conference. “I think it was special, especially being able to do it in front of my family here.

“They're here, and I think there were a lot of Indonesians, and a lot of my close friends are also here.”

She earned the victory behind an impenetrable first serve, particularly in the opening set, when she won 100% of her first-serve points. That steadiness kept her level through four games before she broke for 3-2 and closed the set by winning the last four games.

Things went from good to better in the second set, when she broke first for a 2-1 lead, but the finish was anything but straightforward. Fernandez mounted multiple comeback attempts, breaking back, getting broken again, and breaking once more when Tjen served for the match. After Fernandez held for 6-5, Tjen pushed through a tight service game to force a tiebreak.

From there, she sprinted away, winning the first three points and six of the first seven to earn a handful of match points. She needed only one, completing the upset with an exclamation point.

The win sets up a second-round meeting with former World No. 1 Karolina Pliskova.

Valentova goes three for three in Grand Slam first rounds, crushes Aussie hearts

It’s safe to say Valentova won’t be on many Aussie fans’ Christmas card lists after defeating Joint.

The 19-year-old Aussie entered the tournament with plenty of buzz, seeded at a major for the first time in her career, but she found herself under pressure throughout the entirety of the match against her fellow teenager.

Valentova generated a remarkable 17 break points across two sets. And while the 18-year-old converted just five, it proved enough to reach the second round of a Grand Slam for the third time in her young career, having done so last year at Roland Garros and the US Open.

It’s another in a rapid string of firsts for Valentova.

“It feels amazing,” she said in her on-court interview. “I didn’t expect that last year at the beginning of the year. I was playing at the ITF tournaments and now I’m in the main draw here in Melbourne. So yeah, it feels amazing, and to play in front of that crowd and in this stadium, is amazing.”

The crowd was heavily tilted toward Joint, but Valentova seemed to feed off the energy. She broke in the opening game of the match, and after Joint broke back not once but twice, she refused to waver. The Czech kept attacking, landing the decisive blow in the first set when she broke for 5-4 and served it out the following game.

She then fell behind 2-0 in the second set before rattling off four straight games to regain control of the match, which she would never relinquish. Meanwhile, Joint couldn’t overcome her serving woes, finishing with eight double faults, many at critical moments.

For Valentova, the win sets up a second-round match against qualifier and compatriot Linda Fruhvirtova, who also defeated an Aussie in the first round in Lulu Sun.