ITF Class of 2025: Janice Tjen
The ITF’s ‘Class of…’ series recognises players who have had a successful year on the ITF World Tennis Tour, identifies promising breakthrough talents and those predicted to go on to big things.
This year’s group was decided by a panel of experts. Ashley Keber (WTA), Julia Boyadjieva (ATP), Mark Woodforde (ITF), Mary Pierce (ITF) and Nao Kawatei (ITF) voted on a shortlist of 19 players. Janice Tjen, of Indonesia, completes our Class of 2025.
Every player has their own journey.
It is a mantra that we've heard so many times in tennis, but Indonesia's Janice Tjen is yet another prime example that there is more than one way to make your mark in the sport.
Wind the clock back two seasons to the turn of 2024. Back then, Tjen was a fresh-faced 21-year-old, soon to graduate from Pepperdine University with a degree in sociology, and at that point having contested just six professional tennis tournaments after a good, if not especially stand out junior career.
Two years on, she has 15 professional singles titles to her name, a Grand Slam match-win under her belt, has written her name into the Indonesian tennis history books, and sits at a sky-high No. 53 in the world.
Her rise has been prolific. Jet-powered, no less. And the ITF World Tennis Tour has been integral to that journey, providing the platform for Tjen to hone and develop her court craft and become, to put it bluntly, a winning machine.
"The ITF World Tennis Tour has helped me progress by providing lots of different competitive opportunities and levels of tournaments as well as a variety of players to play against all across the world,” Tjen reflected. “It’s helped me to develop my game with the high volume of matches and challenges throughout 2025.”
High volume, indeed.
Tjen has won an incredible 77 matches (to just 15 defeats) in 2025, collecting eight titles since May and finishing runner-up at four further events.
She went on a 27-match winning streak between May and July that took in hard court titles at W35 Andong (KOR), W15 Maanshan (CHN), W35 Luzhou (CHN), W50 Taizhou (CHN) and W35 Taipei (TPE).
Caty McNally finally ended her irresistible charge in the quarter-finals at W100 Evansville, but Tjen's remarkable journey towards the stars wouldn't veer off course on US soil.
She promptly made back-to-back finals at W75 Lexington and W100 Landisville, suffering fine-margin three-set defeats to Wang Xiyu and Petra Marcinko, respectively, and delivered on her Grand Slam debut at the US Open.
She won through qualifying without dropping a set and recorded a hugely impressive maiden Grand Slam main draw victory in New York against Veronika Kudermetova. Only an inspired Emma Raducanu could clip her charge.
Tjen had shown her promise even in a 6-2 6-1 defeat to the former US Open champion in the second round at Flushing Meadows, and she would go on to end the year by making her mark at WTA level. She reached the final at the WTA 250 event in Sao Paulo, before closing her season with titles at both the WTA 125K Jinan and the WTA 250 event in Chennai, where she also won the doubles crown.
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She was the first Indonesian woman to win a WTA title since Angelique Widjaja in 2001, and surpassed Widjaja's career-high ranking by ending the season at a career-high No. 53.
She is a coach's dream, admits Chris Bint, who has overseen her success this year.
"Janice and I have spent a lot of time throughout this year understanding her game style and identity on court as well as who she wants to be known for as a person,” reflected Bint.
“Janice has done a great job of focussing on her strengths and what she does best across all different levels of tournaments. This season her level of professionalism has increased week in week out and is always highly coachable. We’re looking forward to the challenge ahead in 2026."
That challenge may sit more heavily with her future opponents. Tjen has proven capable of prolific success on the ITF World Tennis Tour. If she can translate that to the highest level of all, the field better watch out.
This rocket is most certainly leaving a trail.