Learner Tien beats Daniil Medvedev
and is the youngest US man in Australia's 3rd round since Sampras
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 [January 17, 2025]
By HOWARD FENDRICH
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Learner Tien, a 19-year-old qualifier
from California, became the youngest American man to reach the
Australian Open's third round since Pete Sampras in 1990, upsetting
a racket-tossing Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (8), 1-6, 7-6
(10-7) in a match that began Thursday night and ended in the wee
hours of Friday.
The 4-hour, 49-minute contest had a bit of everything, including —
hard to believe — a six-minute rain delay that interrupted play
shortly before 2:30 a.m. with Tien serving at 5-all, 15-all in the
fifth set. When they resumed, Medvedev broke and served for the
victory at 6-5, but Tien wouldn’t cede a thing. He immediately broke
back to force the concluding first-to-10 tiebreaker that he emerged
to win shortly before 3 a.m., about two hours after he failed to
convert his initial match point.
“Belief is a big thing in succeeding and winning, in general. I
always go on the court believing that there’s a chance I can win,"
said Tien, who showed up at his news conference toting a white
cardboard box with a pepperoni pizza. “I wasn’t trying to think of
the match as anything more important than any other match I’ve ever
played. I was just going to go out there, have fun, see what I could
do.”
As for the post-match snack, he said, “It was either going to be
celebratory or a binge-y, like, cope. It feels better it’s more
celebratory, for sure.”
The outcome was eyebrow-raising because of the wide gulf in
experience and accomplishments between the two players at Margaret
Court Arena. Tien is ranked 121st and owned a career Grand Slam
record of 0-3 before this week; Medvedev was seeded No. 5, won the
2021 U.S. Open and was the runner-up at Melbourne Park in three of
the past four years, including 12 months ago.
“It was definitely harder than maybe it could have been, but,
whatever,” Tien said on court right afterward, then told the crowd:
“I really appreciate all you guys staying out here. I know it’s
late. I have no idea what time it is.”
Because of the time difference, the match ended at about 8 a.m. on
Thursday morning back home in California, and Tien took the
microphone to speak directly to his family — he said he hoped they
were tuned in on TV.
“I don't know if my parents are still watching. ... I love you guys.
Thank you for always supporting me from across the world,” Tien
said. “I know you guys wish you could be here. I wish you could be
here, too.”
The left-handed Tien played fearlessly and almost flawlessly for
stretches, surprisingly getting the better of lengthy exchanges at
the baseline: Across the first two sets, he won 32 of the 51 points
that lasted nine or more strokes, even coming out on top on one that
went 45 shots and another that lasted 32.
Tien was a point from winning while leading 7-6 in the third-set
tiebreaker. But Medvedev erased that with a 122 mph (196 kph) ace
and eventually converted his third set point at a little past 1 a.m.
[to top of second column] |
Learner Tien of the U.S. celebrates after winning his second round
match against Daniil Medvedev of Russia at the Australian Open
tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, in the early hours of
Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Medvedev was penalized a point in that set while
showing the same sorts of signs of frustration that led him to
destroy a tiny camera hanging in the net by smacking it with his
racket during a surprisingly difficult, five-set, first-round win
against an opponent ranked 418th.
After getting broken to trail 4-3 in the second set
when Tien delivered a lob that landed at a baseline — not the only
time he did that to his 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) foe — Medvedev chucked
his equipment toward the sideline, skidding it across the court
until it reached an advertising panel near his bench. At other
moments of anger, Medvedev hit a ball against the back wall, toppled
a camera behind a baseline and punched his racket bag. He also
voiced displeasure about being called for two consecutive
foot-faults, resulting in a double-fault, during the second-set
tiebreaker.
This was Medvedev’s first tournament of the season — his wife
recently gave birth to their second child — and the 28-year-old
Russian never really displayed his best tennis.
Tien reached two junior Grand Slam singles finals in 2023, at the
Australian Open and U.S. Open, and played one semester of college
tennis at Southern California before turning pro that year.
He turned 19 last month, and is the youngest man from the United
States to get this far at the Australian Open since an 18-year-old
Sampras reached the fourth round in 1990. Sampras won the U.S. Open
later that year for the first of his 14 Grand Slam titles.
This match was the latest significant result for a teen in Melbourne
this year.
Tien joined João Fonseca of Brazil and Martin Landaluce of Spain as
the first trio of teenagers to qualify for the men’s bracket at a
major since Wimbledon in 2017. And then Fonseca, who beat No. 9
Andrey Rublev, and Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic, who defeated
No. 6 Casper Ruud, became the first pair of teens to beat top-10 men
at the same Grand Slam tournament since Novak Djokovic and Andy
Murray at Wimbledon in 2006.
Now Tien makes it three. He called what Fonseca and Mensik did
“definitely pretty inspiring.”
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