American Learner Tien upsets Daniil Medvedev at Australian Open

MELBOURNE, Australia – Learner Tien, a 19-year-old qualifier from California, became the youngest American man to reach the third round of the Australian Open since Pete Sampras in 1990, upsetting a racquet-throwing 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 little 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 6-5 victory, but Tien would not relinquish anything, breaking back and forcing the final first-to-10 tiebreaker, which he appeared to win shortly before 1 p.m. hours after he failed to convert his first match point.

The result was eyebrow-raising due to the wide gap in experience and performance between the two players at the Margaret Court Arena. Tien is ranked 121st and owned a career Grand Slam record of 0-3 before this week; Medvedev was seeded as no. 5, won the 2021 US Open and was runner-up at Melbourne Park in three of the past four years, including 12 months ago.

Tien’s upset of Medvedev was the biggest upset of the Australian Open by betting odds so far, as Tien closed as a +400 underdog according to ESPN Bet odds.

“I was definitely hoping it wouldn’t go to a fifth-set ‘breaker. … It was definitely harder than maybe it could have been, but whatever,” Tien said, then told the crowd, “I really appreciate everything. You stay out here, I know it’s late, I have no idea what time it is.”

Due to the time difference, the match ended around 8 Thursday morning at home in California, and he took the microphone to speak directly to his family — he said he hoped they were tuned in to television.

“I don’t know if my parents are still watching… I love you guys. Thank you for always supporting me from all over the world,” Tien said. “I know you wish you could be here. I wish you could be here too.”

The left-handed Tien played fearlessly and nearly flawlessly down the stretch, profiting surprisingly from long baseline exchanges: Across the first two sets, he won 32 of the 51 points that lasted nine or more strokes, even coming out on top at one that went 45 shots and another that lasted 32.

Tien didn’t blink until he reached the abyss for his most important victory of all time, holding a match point in the third set tiebreaker when he led 7-6. But Medvedev erased it with a 122 mph (196 km/h) ace and eventually converted his third set point just past 1 p.m.

Medvedev was penalized a point in the third set while showing the same kind of frustration that saw him destroy a small camera hanging from the net by slamming it with his racket during a surprisingly tough five-set win in the first round against an opponent ranked 418th.

After being 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 so against his 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) foe — threw Medvedev totes his equipment toward the sideline and strides it across the field until it reaches an advertising panel near his bench. In other moments of anger, Medvedev hit a ball against the back wall, knocked over a camera behind a baseline and slammed his racket bag. He also expressed displeasure at 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 he never really showed his best tennis. As he often does, the 28-year-old Russian switched tactics in an attempt to turn things around, often pushing to the net early in the third set.

Some errors by Tien handed a break of service and a 4-3 lead to Medvedev in that set. But Tien broke the right back and then held a 5-4 edge after Medvedev was docked a point.

Tien reached two junior Grand Slam singles finals in 2023, at the Australian Open and US Open, and played a semester of college tennis in Southern California before turning pro that year.

He just turned 19 last month, and is now the youngest US man to make it this far at the Australian Open since an 18-year-old Sampras reached the fourth round in 1990. Sampras won the US Open later that year for the first of his 14 Grand Slam titles, a total that ranks fourth among men in tennis history.

That fight was the latest significant result for a teenager in Melbourne this year.

Tien joined Joao 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 from the Czech Republic, who defeated no. 6 Casper Ruud, became the first pair of teenagers to beat top-10 men at the same Grand Slam tournament since Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray did it at Wimbledon in 2006.

Now Tien makes it three.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.