Defending champion Janice Tjen (INA) reached her second consecutive WTA 250 Chennai Open Singles Final with a semi-final win over Robin Montgomery (USA) on Saturday. She will play for the title on Sunday, November 8, which is Deepavali, and the festivities had already begun a day early, with firecrackers lighting up the evening around the stadium as she played.
Janice: It was definitely a great match, first of all. It was not easy playing against somebody like Robin, where you can’t do so much with the ball. I’m very happy to be able to take it through.
Playing through the festivities
Tjen said it was a new experience to play with fireworks and celebrations unfolding around the court.
Janice: I must admit the firecrackers in the background were a challenge. This is the first time I’ve played in this kind of environment. It’s not easy for me, and I’m pretty sure it’s not easy for anybody else, because we’re so used to playing in a quiet environment. So I was just trying to stay very, very focused on getting myself through the match.
Q: Did you know why the firecrackers were happening? Did you know about the festival?
Janice: Yeah, definitely. I understand people are celebrating Diwali, and there’s something nice about that, so you make the best out of it. You just try to stay focused as much as you can. It can be tricky when you don’t know when the next one [firecracker] will go off, but you just try to do that as much as possible.
Back in the final
For Tjen, returning to the final has a special meaning after lifting the trophy last year.
Janice: I would say there’s no better way to be back in the final, especially when I went into the final last year. It’s something I will never take for granted.
With the second semi-final still in progress when she spoke, her opponent for the title match was yet to be decided.
The rise of Asian tennis
Q: This year we have seen a lot of rise of Southeast Asians, like Alex Eala, the big tennis player from the Philippines, and we have seen you coming through. What do you think is behind the rise of Southeast Asians and Asians, and South Asians in particular?
Janice: I think we’re just out there trying our best to achieve something, to be the best we can ourselves. We’re trying hard and seeing where that takes us. Everyone has their own goal, but eventually, at the end of the day, I would say we all have the same goal.
The college tennis route
Q: You took the college tennis route from the US, and there are some others who went through the Asian route. How do you compare the two, and did college tennis help you a lot?
Janice: For me, it’s tough to say. In my personal experience, I don’t think there was an advantage as such. Coming out of my junior career, I was definitely not ready to go straight to the professional circuit, physically and especially mentally. So I gave myself more time to keep improving, and I got great competition in US college. That’s something I’ve built on. There were a lot of positive things, and I don’t see the bad things often.