Tatjana Maria opens Nottingham with a composed performance and stops ninth seed Janice Tjen
Tatjana Maria secured a place in the second round of the Lexus Nottingham Open singles tournament after defeating Janice Tjen 6:3, 6:2 in the first round. The match was played on Monday, 15 June 2026, on the grass courts of the Nottingham Tennis Centre in Nottingham, at a tournament that has WTA 250 status in the women's competition. According to the official WTA draw, Tjen was seeded ninth in Nottingham, which gives the result additional weight because Maria entered the match against a more prominently ranked and status-marked opponent in the main draw.
The German tennis player quickly imposed the rhythm that suits her best on grass. Instead of long baseline rallies, Maria built the match on her serve, changes of spin, drop shots and sliced strokes that make it especially difficult on grass to settle into a stable rhythm. The score by sets shows that there were no major fluctuations: she won the first set with one key separation, and in the second she made her advantage even more convincing. According to the British LTA's announcement, Maria advanced to the next round with a 6:3, 6:2 victory, while Tjen ended her appearance at the very start of the tournament.
Serve as the foundation of victory
The most important part of Maria's victory was the way she protected her own serve. According to Flashscore statistics, Maria did not lose a single service game, saved all four break points she faced and won a total of 75 percent of points on her serve. Such an effect on grass has particular value because it leaves the opponent very little room to come back, especially when the match is played in two sets and when an early deficit quickly becomes a tactical problem.
The same source states that Maria landed 76 percent of her first serves and won 78 percent of points after her first serve. In addition, she also won 62 percent of points after her second serve, which shows that Tjen was unable to create constant pressure even when she had the chance to attack the weaker opening shot. Maria also converted three of four break points, while Tjen did not convert any of her four chances. The overall points ratio, 58:39 in Maria's favor according to Flashscore, accurately reflects the difference in control of the match.
Such a statistical profile explains why the encounter did not develop into an uncertain battle. Tjen had moments in which she reached opportunities on return, but she did not turn them into a concrete result. Maria, on the other hand, used her chances more efficiently and did not allow long runs of lost points on her own serve. In a grass-court duel, where individual games often decide an entire set, that difference was decisive.
Grass once again emphasized Maria's strengths
Maria is a player whose style naturally transfers well to grass. Her game does not rely exclusively on power, but on changing the height of the bounce, the tempo and the angle of the shot. On a surface where the ball stays lower and moves more quickly through the court, the sliced backhand, shortening points and moving toward the net can have greater value than on slower surfaces. That exact pattern was also visible against Tjen, who did not find a sufficiently stable answer to the changes of rhythm.
In its tournament materials, the WTA pointed out that Maria advanced in Nottingham with a game based on slice and volleys, which fits the impression from the result and the statistics. Her advantage was not only in converting break points, but also in the fact that she forced her opponent to play a large part of the points from uncomfortable positions. Tjen often had to strike from a low bounce, and that is especially demanding on grass for players who want to take the initiative earlier in the rally.
The victory is also important for Maria because of the broader context of her grass-court season. According to the official WTA profile, the 38-year-old German has won four WTA singles titles in her career, including the title at Queen's Club in 2025. That result confirms that her tennis, even in the later stage of her career, can be especially dangerous in the part of the season played on grass. Nottingham once again offered an example of how experience and tactical variety on that surface can neutralize the ranking and seeded status of an opponent.
Tjen without a real answer in her first appearance
Janice Tjen arrived in Nottingham as the ninth seed, but against Maria she failed to turn that status into control on the court. According to the official WTA profile, the 24-year-old Indonesian tennis player won the title in Chennai in 2025 and became the first Indonesian woman after 23 years with a WTA singles title. That information shows how significant her rise has been, but the duel against Maria opened a different problem: adaptation to grass and to an opponent who does not offer a usual rhythm.
Tjen had four break points in the match, but without converting them. That was one of the key details of the encounter because at least one service break could have changed the course of a set or forced Maria into additional risk. Instead, every unused opportunity strengthened Maria's control. When a player who is behind fails to capitalize on rare chances on return, the pressure returns to her service games, and Tjen did not have the same stability there as her opponent.
Her defeat does not change the fact that she is a player who has made a major step forward at WTA level in a short period. But Nottingham showed that on grass, progress is often measured not only by strokes and ranking, but also by the ability to solve uncomfortable tactical tasks. Maria offered Tjen exactly such a test: many sliced balls, changes of depth, changes of speed and a serve that constantly opened the court. The Indonesian tennis player did not find a sufficiently effective answer to that challenge in the first round.
Nottingham as an important stop in the grass-court season
The Lexus Nottingham Open is part of the short but important period of the season that leads toward Wimbledon. According to the LTA, the tournament in 2026 is held from 13 to 21 June at the Lexus Nottingham Tennis Centre, and it brings together a women's WTA 250 tournament and a men's ATP Challenger Tour event. Because of its schedule and surface, Nottingham is important for players who want to test their form in conditions similar to those that follow at the biggest grass-court tournament of the season.
The LTA states that the Lexus Nottingham Tennis Centre is the largest public tennis centre in Great Britain, with 40 courts. Such infrastructure enables the staging of qualifying, singles and doubles competitions, as well as a broader tournament programme during the week. For players like Maria, who can adapt their tennis especially well to grass, Nottingham is an opportunity to collect matches, points and confidence in a part of the calendar that lasts very briefly. For younger or less experienced grass-court players, the same tournament is often a demanding test of adaptation.
In the first round of the women's tournament, there was no shortage of results that changed the shape of the draw. The LTA reported that Qinwen Zheng defeated Maria Sakkari, while Emma Navarro came through after a comeback against Anna Bondar. The same report also stated that Yuliia Starodubtseva defeated Maya Joint in a match that lasted three hours and 21 minutes. In that context, Maria's victory was one of the most convincing performances of the day because she finished the job in two sets and without losing serve.
Experience as the difference in key moments
Maria's career has long shown that her value cannot be viewed only through the current ranking. According to her WTA profile, she was born on 8 August 1987 in Bad Saulgau, and the first professional appearances in her biography date back to the ITF level in 2001. Such longevity is rare in modern tennis, especially on the WTA Tour, where physical demands and the schedule often shorten the period of top-level results. Maria, however, has maintained a recognizable style and the ability to play significantly above expectations in certain conditions, expectations that would be derived only from the ranking list.
The WTA records in her profile that in 2022 she reached the Wimbledon semifinals, which remains one of the most important results of her career at Grand Slam level. That result is not a random exception, but part of a broader picture: on grass, Maria can use experience, reading of the game and changes of rhythm as a balance against physically stronger or more aggressive opponents. Against Tjen, that combination came to the fore precisely. She did not have to dominate long rallies, but made the match uncomfortable enough that her opponent could not find continuity.
On the other hand, Tjen is the profile of a developing player who has already made major advances. The WTA states that she played college tennis in the United States, at the University of Oregon and Pepperdine University, before building a professional path toward a WTA title. Such a development path often brings competitive maturity, but the transition to the highest level and different surfaces brings new challenges. In Nottingham, one of those challenges was a meeting with a player who breaks the rhythm in almost every point.
What the victory means for the continuation of the tournament
According to the official WTA draw, Maria secured a place in the round of 16 with her victory over Tjen. In the part of the draw in which she is located, the continuation of the tournament depends on the outcome of the match between Lois Boisson and Dayane Yastremska, which at the time of the last available check was marked as a first-round match. This means that a new tactical challenge opens up for Maria in the second round, but also an opportunity to confirm that the victory over a seed was not an isolated result, but an indicator of good adaptation to the surface and conditions in Nottingham.
For Maria, the continuation of the tournament will require the same discipline on serve. Against Tjen, she was able to build the match from the security of her opening shot, but every next opponent will have more fresh information on how to try to take time away from her and open the court. Still, the way she passed the first round shows that Maria did not come to Nottingham only as an experienced player with good memories on grass. She came as a tennis player who can still tactically control matches at WTA level.
Tjen, meanwhile, will have to look for answers before her next appearances on grass after the defeat. The 6:3, 6:2 result does not have to be an indicator of a long-term problem, but it clearly points to the fact that against players of Maria's profile she must use return opportunities more effectively and adapt more quickly to changes of rhythm. In modern women's tennis, there are more and more players who play powerfully and directly, but grass still rewards those who know how to change the tempo. Nottingham showed that very clearly in this duel.
Sources:
- LTA – official results and updates of the 2026 Lexus Nottingham Open (link)
- LTA – official information on the tournament, location and dates of staging (link)
- WTA – official draw of the 2026 Lexus Nottingham Open (link)
- WTA – official profile of Tatjana Maria and career data (link)
- WTA – official profile of Janice Tjen and career data (link)
- Flashscore – match statistics Tatjana Maria - Janice Tjen (link)