{"id":542601,"date":"2025-11-01T19:02:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T19:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/542601\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T19:02:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T19:02:11","slug":"chennai-open-2025-tjen-birrell-eye-first-tour-level-title-after-overcoming-tense-semifinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/542601\/","title":{"rendered":"Chennai Open 2025: Tjen, Birrell eye first Tour-level title after overcoming tense semifinals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Indonesia\u2019s Janice Tjen and Australia\u2019s Kimberly Birrell earned the right to fight for their maiden Tour-level title after digging deep to emerge victorious in the Chennai Open 2025 semifinals on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Fourth seed Tjen came back from a 2-5 deficit in the second set to take down Lanlana Tararudee, a talented 21-year-old player from Thailand, with a 7-6(6), 7-6(5) scoreline in two hours and 24 minutes, showcasing the level of tennis which left 800-odd Centre Court crowd at the SDAT Stadium gasping for breath on multiple occasions.<\/p>\n

Later, seventh seed Birrell found every last bit of her resolve and saved four match points in a dramatic fixture which lasted three hours and 24 minutes \u2014 the longest of the tournament \u2014 to defeat Chinese Taipei\u2019s Joanna Garland 6-7(2), 6-3, 7-5.<\/p>\n

World No. 171 Tararudee proved that her second-round win over World No. 73 Zeynep Sonmez, the top seed, wasn\u2019t a fluke as she stretched Tjen, another Top 100 player, to the limit in both sets in her maiden Tour-level semifinal.<\/p>\n

Her explosive serve \u2014 12 aces in the match \u2014 and the ability to execute powerful groundstrokes in the middle of the rallies denied World No. 82 Tjen the chance to dominate the match with her usual toolkit of backhand slices, drop shots and volleys.<\/p>\n

But the 21-year-old\u2019s failure to punish Tjen\u2019s slower second serves \u2014 the Indonesian won two-thirds of her second serve points \u2014 did mean that the fourth seed was allowed to escape undamaged from many close games.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ | Tracing compatriot Widjaja\u2019s path, Indonesian Janice Tjen blazes a trail into WTA Top 100<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Also, Tararudee committed six double faults, and a majority of them turned out to be very costly. The second one came when she was up by a mini-break and led 4-3 in the first set tiebreak. Fourth and fifth arrived while she was serving for the second set at 5-2. The last one, perhaps a sign of things to come, made her mini-break advantage vanish at 3-2 in the second set tiebreak.<\/p>\n

A little over a month after the loss in her maiden WTA 250 event final in Sao Paulo, Tjen has another opportunity to end a 23-year wait for a first singles title for Indonesia on the women\u2019s tour since Angelique Widjaja\u2019s 2002 triumph in Pattaya.<\/p>\n

Standing in Tjen\u2019s way will be Birrell, who will play her first Tour-level final since last year\u2019s Japan Open. Wearing a brace on her right ankle along with a heavily-taped right elbow, Garland, the World No. 132 from Chinese Taipei, accepted Birrell\u2019s challenge of engaging in a baseline slugfest.<\/p>\n

Garland saved all six break points in the opener before racing to a 5-1 lead in the tiebreaker and closing it out.<\/p>\n

\"Kimberly<\/p>\n

Kimberly Birrell will be playing her first Tour-level final since last year\u2019s Japan Open.
\n | Photo Credit:
\n R Ravindran\n <\/p>\n

\"lightbox-info\"\/<\/p>\n

\n

Kimberly Birrell will be playing her first Tour-level final since last year\u2019s Japan Open.
\n | Photo Credit:
\n R Ravindran\n <\/p>\n

Birrell finally converted her eighth break point to move ahead early in the second set and kept the advantage intact, taking the final-four clash to a decider.<\/p>\n

The match seemed to be headed towards an anti-climactic finish as Garland dominated World No. 117 Birrell to take a commanding 5-0 lead.<\/p>\n

However, the 24-year-old Garland could not cross the finish line. Serving at 5-1, she didn\u2019t even get close to it. At 5-3, she squandered four match points. She also saved four break points. As a crosscourt forehand from Birrell sailed wide, bringing the game back to deuce, Garland, struggling to breathe, collapsed behind the baseline.<\/p>\n

After a medical timeout, a teary-eyed Garland resumed playing and, facing her fifth break point, sent a backhand long.<\/p>\n

She received further treatment for cramps at the changeover at 5-4, but it did not improve her physical condition as Birrell completed a comeback by breaking Garland again at 5-5 before holding to love.<\/p>\n

The Australian, who could not hold back the tears after watching Garland\u2019s suffering\u00a0and even consoled her, received the Margaret Amritraj Fairplay Award, the award named after the mother of Indian tennis legend and Tamil Nadu Tennis Association President Vijay Amritraj, for the gesture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Published on Nov 02, 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indonesia\u2019s Janice Tjen and Australia\u2019s Kimberly Birrell earned the right to fight for their maiden Tour-level title after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[174617,174621,174623,174619,174622,174620,173599,83804,79,1068,5838,174624,16,15,174618],"class_list":{"0":"post-542601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-chennai-open-2025","9":"tag-chennai-open-2025-final","10":"tag-chennai-open-2025-news","11":"tag-chennai-open-2025-results","12":"tag-chennai-open-2025-semifinal-results","13":"tag-chennai-open-2025-semifinals","14":"tag-janice-tjen","15":"tag-kimberly-birrell","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-tennis","18":"tag-tennis-news","19":"tag-tjen-vs-birrell","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom","22":"tag-wta-chennai-open-2025"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115475995483881185","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}