{"id":156975,"date":"2025-09-14T21:19:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T21:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/156975\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T21:19:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T21:19:10","slug":"tjen-and-rakotomanga-rajaonah-to-battle-for-maiden-title-tennis-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/156975\/","title":{"rendered":"Tjen and Rakotomanga Rajaonah to Battle for Maiden Title \u2013 Tennis Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pair of first-time finalists will square off for the trophy on Sunday in Sao Paulo, as Indonesia\u2019s Janice Tjen and Madagascar\u2019s Tiantsoa Rakotomanga Rajaonah each booked milestone victories on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tjen, 23, battled past Great Britain\u2019s Francesca Jones, 7-6(0), 6-3, in one hour and 32 minutes to become just the third Indonesian woman to reach a WTA final in the Open Era. The former Pepperdine standout has made a fast transition from college tennis to the tour, and her breakthrough week continues in Brazil.<\/p>\n

Tjen fired eight aces and won 89 percent of her first-serve points.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tjen is 63-12 across all levels in 2025, and is playing her second tour-level event after making her debut at the U.S. Open last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s special,\u201d Tjen said after the match. \u201cIt\u2019s my first WTA tournament outside of a Grand Slam, and being able to reach the final is a bonus. But at the end of the day, it\u2019s just another match so I\u2019ll see how I do tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tjen will bid to make history for her country on Sunday. The last Indonesian to win a WTA title was Widjaja at 2002 Pattaya City. She is already the first Indonesian to reach a WTA final since 2002.<\/p>\n

Awaiting her in Sunday\u2019s final is 19-year-old Rakotomanga Rajaonah, ranked 230, who powered past Mexico\u2019s Renata Zarazua, 6-3, 6-2, in one hour and 20 minutes. The French teenager, contesting just her third main-draw appearance at tour level, and first on a hard court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Sao Paulo final promises to deliver a fresh champion, no matter the result. For both women, it\u2019s already a week they\u2019ll never forget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pair of first-time finalists will square off for the trophy on Sunday in Sao Paulo, as Indonesia\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-156975","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}