Janice Tjen continued her rapid emergence on to the Hologic WTA Tour by resuming an old junior rivalry in the SP Open quarterfinals. From 3-0 down in the first set, she won 12 of the next 14 games to defeat No. 3 seed Alexandra Eala 6-4, 6-1 in 1 hour and 12 minutes.

São Paulo: Scores | Draws | Order of play

Playing just the second tour-level event of her career after qualifying for the US Open last month, Tjen has become the first Indonesian to reach a WTA semifinal in 23 years — since Angelique Widjaja claimed the title at Pattaya City 2002. The 23-year-old extended her overall 2025 record to 62-12, and she’s a remarkable 103-15 since graduating from Pepperdine University last June.

Though this was the first professional meeting between Tjen and Eala, the pair go back a long way. They first played each other in two Grade 4 junior events in each other’s home countries back in 2018, with both winning the “away” match — Eala in Jakarta, Indonesia and Tjen in Makati City, the Philippines. In a nod to the significance of two players from south-east Asia meeting each other in a WTA quarterfinal, Tjen wrote “SEA” and drew a heart on the camera after winning.

Eala led their overall junior head-to-head 2-1 and made the brighter start, pinning Tjen in her backhand corner to avoid her forehand. No. 130-ranked Tjen didn’t help her cause with a pair of double faults in her first service game.

But once Tjen got her footwork and serve going, the match was one-way traffic. Skipping nimbly around her forehand at every opportunity, she fired winners to every corner of the court with it, eventually tallying 23 to Eala’s meagre four. From 3-0 down, Tjen would only face break points in one more game, up 2-1 in the second set. She saved both in signature fashion — a forehand winner and an unreturned serve.

Eala, who was on a seven-match winning streak after capturing her first WTA 125 title in Guadalajara last week, was also undone by 15 unforced errors, often into the net. By the end, Tjen was teeing off on the Eala serve, and she converted her second match point with a clean return winner to seal her fourth career Top 100 victory.

“It still feels unbelievable to me, it still hasn’t hit yet,” said Tjen afterwards. “[I was] focusing on every point — especially playing against Alex Eala, we all know she can come back at any time — just trying to focus and stay in it ’til the end.”

Tjen will face No. 6 seed Francesca Jones in the semifinals after the Briton came from 2-0 down in both sets to defeat No. 2 seed Solana Sierra 6-3, 6-4. Jones advanced to her second career tour-level semifinal following Bogota 2023, and — like Tjen — will be bidding to reach her first career final.

“She looks to be playing really good tennis,” Jones said of Tjen. “I actually really like her game style. I think it’ll be a fun match — we have some similarities too.”