By The Canadian Press

Fernandez bounced in women’s singles at Australian Open, Mboko wins doubles opener

Jan 19, 2026 | 6:12 PM

MELBOURNE — Janice Tjen’s rise to becoming the No. 1 women’s player in Indonesia has included one WTA singles title and three doubles championships.

The 23-year-old reached No. 53 in the WTA singles rankings in November and her coaches predicted then the best was yet to come.

Tjen demonstrated that improvement with a first-round upset of Canada’s Leylah Fernandez on Tuesday at the Australian Open.

Fernandez, of Laval, Que., was seeded 22nd in the major tournament, but was bounced 6-2, 7-6 (1) in one hour 43 minutes.

Tjen finished with four aces, 17 winners, six double faults and 27 unforced errors. Fernandez had two aces, 16 winners, five double faults and 28 unforced errors.

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Fernandez won two of eight break points and two of 10 return games, while Tjen took four of seven break points and won four of 10 return games.

Tjen advances to play Karolina Pliskova of Czechia.

MBOKO KEEPS WINNING

In opening-round women’s doubles action, Toronto’s Victoria Mboko — the only Canadian woman to win her first-round singles match — teamed up with American Iva Jovic to defeat Ulrikke Eikeri of Norway and Ingrid Neel of Estonia 7-5, 6-3 in one hour 31 minutes.

Mboko and Jovic finished with three aces, two double faults and won 70 per cent of their points on first serve. They dominated in return games, winning four of 10 games, compared to Eikeri and Neel’s two of 11.

Eikeri and Neel had two aces, four double faults and won 61 per cent of their points on first serve.

Mboko and Jovic will play the winner of a match between Romania’s Sorana Cirstea and Russian Anna Kalinskaya against the fourth-seeded pairing of Elise Mertens of Belgium and Shuai Zhang of China.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 19, 2026.

The Canadian Press