Linette Fights Back to Dethrone Tjen in Chennai, Then Dedicates Her Fourth Title to Kraków

Magda Linette had waited four years for another chance in Chennai, and by the time the trophy was finally in her hands on Monday morning, she could barely bring herself to celebrate it.

The final itself had already been through enough. Rain and thick Diwali smoke had smothered the SDAT Tennis Stadium on Sunday, forcing the title match against defending champion Janice Tjen back by a day. When play finally began, Tjen — the top seed, 24 years old, and the player who had owned this tournament for a year — looked ready to make the wait count. She took a tight first set 7-5, raising her forehand level at 5-5 to steal the single decisive break, and for a while the final seemed to be following a familiar script.

Linette, 34, has seen this film before. Four years ago she stood in this same final, led Linda Fruhvirtova 4-1 in the third set, and lost. This time she refused to let the story repeat. The world No. 68 came out for the second set and simply took the match apart, redirecting winners off Tjen's court positioning and winning nine of the next 11 games to storm through the second set 6-1 and lead 3-1 in the decider.

Tjen, to her credit, would not go quietly. She clawed back to 3-3 in a five-deuce game that ended with an exquisite drop shot and an off-forehand winner, and for a moment the ghosts of 2022 flickered. But Linette broke straight back, chasing down drop shot after drop shot, and then served the match out to love — a volley, an overhead, two unreturned serves, and it was done: 5-7, 6-1, 6-4.

It was her fourth WTA singles title, her first in more than two years, joining triumphs at the Bronx in 2019, Hua Hin in 2020 and Prague in 2024. It was also the hardest week of her career to win one. Her week began with the longest WTA main-draw match of 2026 so far, a three-hour-33-minute marathon against qualifier Aliona Falei, and she came from a set down in her last three matches.

"I fought from the very first round," Linette said afterwards. "I was down in almost every single match, so it really took a lot out of me but most of all I proved to myself that I can."

That fight mattered more than usual, because the season behind her had been brutal. After reaching the semi-finals at 's-Hertogenbosch in June, she won just one of her next 10 matches. "I'm really proud of myself and my team, because we had a really tough streak for a lot of weeks," she said. "Towards the end of it, I hit the wall and I didn't really know what to do. I'm really glad that all of us just stuck through and worked really hard, tried every single thing that we could to get me back on track."

But the celebration stopped there, because home was on her mind. Hours earlier, a gunman had opened fire in a market square in Kraków, Linette's home city, killing six people and injuring 17. "As much as I'm so happy, it's hard to celebrate because of what happened in Poland, in Kraków," she said. "I just want to say that my heart and wishes are with all the victims and those who are hurt. In those tough moments we can really thank and appreciate one another and give that person next to us an extra hug today."