Finalist in three of the last four editions (2021, 2022, 2024) of the Australian Open, Daniil Medvedev (5e world) was eliminated in the second round, Friday in Melbourne, by the young American Learner Tien (121e), winner of the Russian 6-3, 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (8/10), 1-6, 7-6 (10/7).
Medvedev, who needed five sets at 1is round to get rid of the modest Thai Kasidit Samrej (418e), had not been eliminated at such an early stage of a Grand Slam tournament since his defeat upon entry into contention at Roland-Garros in 2023.
Stand opposed to Moutet
On Friday, he saved a match point in the tie-break of the third set, before losing the second in favor of the American after 4h49 of play, when it was almost 3 a.m. in Australia. Coming from qualifying, Learner Tien reached the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, at the age of 19. He will face Frenchman Corentin Moutet (69) on Saturdaye), who fell on Thursday to another American, Mitchell Krueger.
For his first confrontation against the former world No.1, Tien pocketed the first set after making up a break behind. In a curious second set, where both players struggled on serve and conceded their throws four times, it was once again the American who had the last word in the deciding game.
-The “next gen” is strong
In the third set, Tien was well on his way to winning a decisive tie-break. But he made two avoidable unforced errors on the forehand and Medvedev started again. After a one-sided fourth set, the world No.5 found his opponent in the last round. Then in the super tie-break, Tien won four points in a row to win.
Despite the elimination of Joao Fonseca (18) against Lorenzo Sonego on Thursday, Tien is the fourth player to have participated in the NextGen ATP Finals – the tournament which in December brought together the eight best players under 21 in the past season – to join the third round after Jakub Mensik (19 years old), Arthur Fils (20 years old) and Alex Michelsen (20 years old).
