Janice Tjen captured her first WTA title by defeating Kimberly Birrell 6-4, 6-3 in the Chennai Open final on Sunday. The 23-year-old recorded the biggest victory of her career and became only the third Indonesian to lift a WTA singles trophy in the Open Era.

The only other Indonesian WTA champions are Yayuk Basuki, who won six titles between 1991 and 1994, and Angelique Widjaja, who collected two titles, in Bali in 2001 and in Pattaya City in 2002. Widjaja’s Pattaya City triumph came in November of 2002, the same week as that year’s WTA Finals, when Kim Clijsters defeated Serena Williams for the title. Tjen was five months old at the time.

Tjen had reached her first WTA final in September in Sao Paulo, finishing runner-up to France’s Tiantsoa Rakotomanga Rajaonah. A few weeks after that run in Brazil, Tjen broke into the Top 100, becoming the first player to crack that elite since Widjaja in 2004.

Her victory in Chennai will bring a significant ranking jump. She’s now projected to rise from No. 82 to just outside the Top 50, a career milestone that reflects rapid progress this season.

© 2025 Robert Prange

Leylah Fernandez reached the Japan Open final after a three-set victory over Sorana Cîrstea, prevailing 6-1, 2-6, 6-4. Fernandez recovered from a 3-1 deficit in the deciding set, breaking Cîrstea at 4-4 and then holding serve to close out the match.

The fourth-seeded Canadian advances to her eighth career final. Fernandez is the 2021 U.S. Open runner-up and this season made her only semifinal run at the WTA 500 D.C. Open, where she defeated Anna Kalinskaya in the final for her fourth WTA singles title.

Fernandez will meet 18-year-old qualifier Tereza Valentova in Sunday’s championship match. Valentova, the 2024 Roland Garros junior champion, reached her first WTA final by beating Jaqueline Cristian 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-3 in the other semifinal.

Cristian reached the semifinals after receiving a walkover in her quarterfinal when top-seeded Naomi Osaka pulled out with a left leg injury on Friday.

Fernandez’s win over Cîrstea combined a dominant opening set with a resilient finish, responding after dropping the second set and then mounting the comeback in the third. Valentova’s run as a qualifier and former junior champion sets up a contrast in styles and experience for the final, as an established tour veteran faces an 18-year-old making her first WTA title match appearance.

Sunday’s final will pair Fernandez’s tour experience and previous Grand Slam final appearance with Valentova’s breakthrough week at the Japan Open. The stage is set for a final that will decide the tournament champion and extend both players’ seasons in 2025.

Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard turned a 223 km/h serve into an unforgettable moment and a quarterfinal victory at the BNP Paribas Fortis European Open. The Frenchman’s fast ace struck a spectator’s cup in Brussels, breaking it, and the episode became part of a match he carried to a win over top seed Lorenzo Musetti.

The fifth seed closed out the match 6-4, 7-6 (8), ending a run of four straight losses to Musetti. Prior meetings had gone in Musetti’s favor, including two hard-court defeats in the last two months at the US Open and the China Open. This result marked Mpetshi Perricard’s first win against Musetti in five attempts.

Mpetshi Perricard remained aggressive on serve after the viral moment, using his power to keep Musetti on the defensive and to secure the straight-set victory. The win improved his record in ATP quarterfinals to 4-0 and advanced him into the semifinal against No. 3 seed Jiri Lehecka.

Lehecka had earlier recovered from a set down against Benjamin Bonzi, who was forced to retire while trailing 6-7 (8), 6-1, 4-1, thus preventing an all-French semifinal. With both wins, Mpetshi Perricard and Lehecka moved on to the final four of the event.

The match combined an unusual off-court moment with a substantive result for Mpetshi Perricard: a decisive victory over a higher-seeded opponent, an end to a streak of losses to that rival, and continued success in the late stages of ATP tournaments this season.