Learner Tien of the U.S. gestures during his second round match against Daniil Medvedev of Russia at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
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, broke back, and forced 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.
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.
But 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.
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Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
