Tjen illuminates the fall of Buckwheat; Vekic crashes

Indonesian Janice Tjen loves butter nan and biryani rice, as she said during the post-match interviews. In fact, it seems 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 fourth, played a near-flawless match to defeat Mia Pohankova of Slovakia, the 17-year-old wild card entrant, making her debut in a 250 event, 6-3, 6-1. It was the curtain for Croatia’s third seed Donna Vekic as she fell 6-4, 6-0 to seventh seed Kimberly Birrell from Australia.

Birrell will next meet Joanna Garland. while Janice will clash with Thailand’s Lalana Tararudee

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

Against a bigger player like Pohankova, Janice was more consistent and 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 the Australian away in the first set with a barrage of powerful groundstrokes. Rodionova, with little or no backswing on her forehand or backhand, pushed Garland in the second set with nice placement, and drawing her to the net, she used the lob to good effect. However, Garland held her nerve in the tiebreaker.

The results (quarter-finals): Janice Tjen (Ina) with Mia Pohankova (Svk) 6-3, 6-1; John Rodionova (also) 6-2, 7-6(2); Kimberly Birrell (Cro) (Cro) 6-4, 6-0; Iatcenko (Russian) Polina (Russian) 6-0, 6-2.