Daniil Medvedev has suffered his earliest exit from the Australian Open in seven years after losing a five-set late-night encounter against American qualifier Learner Tien.
Medvedev, who has reached the final in Melbourne in three out of the past four years, crashed out 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-7(8), 1-6, 7-6(10-7), to the world No.121. The marathon encounter lasted more than four hours and didn’t conclude until after 3am which makes it one of the latest-finishing matches in the Open Era. The roller coaster encounter featured a total of 105 winners with 53 of those coming from Tien, who was playing in only his fifth Grand Slam match at the age of 19 and his second five-set match.
“I was definitely hoping it wasn’t going to go to a fifth set breaker but either way, just really happy to get a win,” Tien said during his on-court interview.
“I know I made it a lot harder than maybe it could have been. But, you know, whatever.”
The roller-coaster encounter was a stern test for the youngster both mentally and physically after he failed to convert a match point in the third set before losing six out of the next seven games played. Some of that was due to a mini Medvedev resurgence, as well as Tien’s need to use the toilet.
“Losing the third was tough,” he said.
“After playing for that long, I had a match point. That was a little disappointing to see it fourth after fighting back from a break down in that third.
“But honestly in the fourth set, I just had to pee so bad. I was trying to finish it up fairly quickly.
But I also wanted to start the fifth serving, so I scrapped out that game at oh five and it all worked out.”
Tien is the first qualifier to beat Medvedev at the Australian Open since Ernesto Escobedo did so in 2017. He is the second-youngest American man to reach the last 32 of the tournament in the Open Era after Donald Young. An impressive achievement for a player who only made their top 400 debut last season.
The breakthrough comes after a successful 2024 when Tien won a trio of titles on the lower-level Challenger tour before finishing runner-up at the Next Gen Finals to Joao Fonseca. Fonseca lost his second round match to Lorenzo Sonego.
Awaiting the American in the last 32 will be France’s Corentin Moutet.
“I saw a little bit of his first round match,” Tien said of Moutet.
“Not really thinking about if I could play in the third round or not. I think it’ll be a fun match.”
Tien is the third teenager to beat a top 10 player in this year’s draw. Something that has only happened twice before in the Open Era at a Grand Slam event.
