Janice Tjen of Indonesia beat Ukraine's Anhelina Kalinina in the first round of the WTA 1000 tournament in Beijing 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 to reach the second round. The tournament is played on hard courts with a prize fund of $9.4 million. Neither player was seeded.
Kalinina took the first set 6-2. The second set was tighter, and Tjen edged it 7-5 to force a decider. There, the Indonesian proved stronger again, closing out the match 6-4.
Closely matched in the rankings
According to the rank.tennis rankings, Kalinina is 46th with 1107 points, while Tjen sits 48th with 1100 points. This was the pair's only meeting so far, making the head to head 1-0 in Tjen's favor.
Before Beijing, Tjen lost in the second round in Guadalajara to Sloane Stephens 6-7(4), 6-7(3). Prior to that, she had beaten Darya Vidmanova 7-6(6), 6-2 there. At the US Open, the Indonesian lost in the first round to Mirra Andreeva 2-6, 2-6. For Kalinina, the loss in Beijing was her third in a row. She had previously lost in the first round of the US Open to Himeno Sakatsume, and in Cincinnati she won her opening match against Vidmanova 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 before falling to Emma Navarro 6-3, 4-6, 2-6. Match statistics provided by api.tennis.