Tjen eases past Pohankova; Vekic crashes out

Indonesia’s Janice Tjen loves butter nans and biryani rice as she mentioned at the post-match interviews. More than that, it looks like she is enjoying her stay here, and has adapted better than most foreigners to the hot and humid weather conditions at the SDAT-Nungambakkam Stadium here in the ongoing WTA 250 Chennai Open tennis tournament.

On Friday, the 23-year-old, seeded four, played a near-flawless game to outplay Mia Pohankova of Slovakia, the 17-year-old wild card entrant, making her debut in a 250 event, 6-3, 6-1. It was curtains for Croatia’s third seed Donna Vekic as she went down to Kimberly Birrell, the seventh seed from Australia 6-4, 6-0.

Birrell will next meet Joanna Garland. while Janice will clash with Lanlana Tararudee of Thailand

Earlier, Garland of Taipei overcame quite a tough challenge from 35-year-old Arina Rodionova of Australia before prevailing 6-2, 7-6(2).

Against a taller player like Pohankova, Janice was more consistent, accurate with her groundstrokes. Despite the Slovakian producing eight aces, it was her unforced errors and six double faults that were her undoing.

Garland blew way the Australian in the first set, with a barrage of powerful groundstrokes. Rodionova, with little or no backswing either on her forehand or backhand, pushed Garland in the second set with nice placements, and by drawing her to the net, used the lob to good effect. However, Garland held her nerve in the tiebreaker.

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