Janice Tjen Makes History at the 2026 Dubai Championship

JAKARTA - Janice Tjen has made history for the first time in her career when she was able to step into the third round of the elite WTA Tour tournament after eliminating Canadian tennis player Leylah Fernandez in the second round of the 2026 Dubai Championship.

The 23-year-old tennis player got a ticket to the last 16 after securing a straight two-set victory 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 over Leylah in a match that lasted one hour and 43 minutes on Monday, February 16 WIB.

This is the first time Janice has been able to get past the second round of an elite-level tournament on the WTA Tour calendar. The journey of the Jakarta-born tennis player has previously been stuck in the second round.

In this year's competition calendar, the crash in the second round was felt by Janice when she appeared at the Australian Open, which was the second Grand Slam tournament she had played so far.

In that competition, he won his first competitive meeting with Leylah in the first round, but surrendered against former world number one Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic in the second round.

Janice then appeared in the WTA 500 Abu Dhabi event with a wildcard. There, he stopped Maya Joint in the first round in his debut at that level, then lost to Liudmila Samsonova (Russia) in the next round.

Janice's journey then continued to the WTA 1000 Qatar Open. He managed to easily beat Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia in the first round, but surrendered two games against world number two Iga Swiatek (Poland) in the next stage.

Last year Janice also managed to break through to the main round of the US Open Grand Slam from qualifying. He was able to stop Veronika Kudermetova in the first round, but lost to Emma Raducanu (England) after that.

In addition, Janice also played in the WTA 1000 China Open from the qualifying round. His journey there was much shorter, losing in the first round to Aliaksandra Sasnovich who also struggled in the qualifying round.

Janice will get a big test in the 2026 Dubai Championship 16-year-old because she will face the world's sixth-ranked and second-seeded player in the tournament, Amanda Anisimova.

The American tennis player qualified for the last 16 without playing. He won a walkover (WO) against Barbora Krejcikova from the Czech Republic.