Aldila Sutjiadi/Janice Tjen Unstoppable at the SEA Games

NONTHABURI, FRIDAY – The women's doubles team, Aldila Sutjiadi/Janice Tjen, added a gold medal for the Indonesian tennis team at the 2025 SEA Games in Thailand. Out of three gold medals, two were secured by female players who are more actively competing in professional tournaments.

Aldila/Janice secured the women's doubles gold medal after defeating the host representatives in the final at the National Tennis Development Center, Nonthaburi, Thailand, on Friday (19/12/2025). They triumphed over Mananchaya Sawangkaew/Peangtarn Plipuech with a score of 6-2, 6-1.

This marks the second gold medal for Aldila/Janice after they contributed to Indonesia's victory over Thailand in the women's team final on December 13. Indonesia won 2-1, partly due to the victory of Aldila/Janice against the same opponent.

However, unlike the women's team match, Aldila/Janice won the women's doubles in the individual category with a better score. "From the score, it looks easy, but in reality, the match was quite tight," commented Janice.

Meanwhile, Aldila said the women's team match had made her and Janice better prepared to anticipate their opponents' moves. "We played better today, scoring points at critical moments, like the deciding point (when a deuce occurred). We continued to play aggressively even though we were so far ahead," Aldila said.

The superiority of Aldila/Janice is not only evident during their service position. They also displayed solid performance when receiving serves, breaking their opponents' serve twice in the first set and four times in the second set. Meanwhile, Sawangkaew/Plipuech managed to break the Indonesian serve only once, which occurred in the fourth game of the second set when they were trailing 0-3.

Of course, I'm happy to be able to give Indonesia gold to add to their team gold medal tally.

For Aldila, the victory in the women's doubles final marks her seventh gold medal at the SEA Games since she began competing in the SEA Games in Singapore in 2015. The 30-year-old athlete has also added to her gold medals from women's singles at the SEA Games 2019, mixed doubles (SEA Games 2019, 2021, 2023), and women's team events (SEA Games 2023 and 2025).

Meanwhile, the SEA Games in Thailand 2025 will be the first for Janice, although she won a gold medal in women's doubles with Aldila at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games. "Of course, I am happy to be able to contribute a gold medal for Indonesia to add to the team's gold," said the 23-year-old athlete.

With the addition of the women's doubles gold, the Indonesian tennis team secured three gold medals and six bronze medals. Another gold for "Merah Putih" was obtained by Christopher Rungkat and his teammates from the men's team event.

Indonesia ranked below Thailand, which secured three gold medals, seven silver medals, and one bronze medal. Thailand placed representatives in all final events. The gold medal in women's singles was won by the best Southeast Asian tennis player from the Philippines, Alex Eala.

Eala and Janice were actually expected to meet in the women's singles final, considering they are currently the two best tennis players in Southeast Asia. However, Janice was unable to complete the women's singles semifinal against Sawakaew due to illness. She withdrew after losing the first set with a score of 4-6.

Indonesia's tennis medals at the 2025 Thailand event are fewer compared to the 2023 Cambodia SEA Games. At that time, Indonesia secured four gold medals from the women's team, Priska Madelyn Nugroho (women's singles), Muhammad Rifqi Fitriadi (men's singles), and Christopher/Aldila (mixed doubles).

Indonesia's gold medals this year, particularly the two golds in the women's category, reflect the significant impact of female tennis players' participation in professional tournaments. The female players, namely Aldila, Janice, and Priska, are more actively competing in professional tournaments compared to their male counterparts.

Aldila broke into the WTA Tour and Grand Slam since 2022, focusing on the doubles category, while Janice entered that level this year. Aldila achieved her highest accomplishment as a semifinalist in the Grand Slam mixed doubles and became a finalist in the WTA 500 women's doubles. Meanwhile, Janice won the singles and women's doubles titles at the WTA 250 Chennai.

Priska, although still primarily competing at the ITF level, participated in 25 tournaments in 2025. She achieved her best result by reaching the semifinals of the WTA 125 in Jinan in October.

In the men's category, Rifqi became the tennis player with the most tournaments in 2025, participating in 17 tournaments at the ITF level. Other players participated in fewer than ten tournaments. Anthony Susanto played in nine tournaments, while Justin Barki competed in two tournaments.

Rifqi and his colleagues were outmatched by male tennis players from Thailand such as Kasidit Samrej and Maximus Jones. Samrej, who defeated Rifqi in the semifinals, and Jones compete in the professional arena at the ATP Challenger level.

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