By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
19-year-old teen wonder Learner Tien continued to surpass expectations and bagged a fourth-round seat in the ongoing Australian Open Grand Slam tournament.
Fresh off a momentum-boosting victory when he scored a massive upset over world no. 5 Daniil Medvedev, Tien picked up where he left off and eliminated Corentin Moutet in the third round- 7.6, 6.3, 6.3- on January 18, 2025, at the Show Court Arena in Australia.
It seemed that the tiebreaker fever wouldn’t leave Tien in his match against Moutet when they immediately engaged in a deciding set in the very first frame of their third-round duel.
Fortunately, the rolling American boosting with confidence found a way to break Moutet’s spin-heavy first service and capped off the tiebreaker with a return ace and a forehand down-the-line bomb.
After Tien’s intense first-set win, the whole crowd present at the Show Court Arena began to give him a standing ovation and is slowly becoming the crowd favorite in the ongoing Grand Slam tournament.
Pumped up and hyped after stealing the close first set, Tien looked more comfortable at the start of the second when he became looser.
Flashes of his insane performance against Medvedev delighted the crowd when he scored a recovery lob shot after Moutet’s spin drop and wowed the spectators with a cross-court backhand winner that kissed the line.
From that sequence, Moutet started to lose momentum and gave up a crucial service possession that allowed Tien to take a commanding 2-0 advantage.
It was all Tien in the third and final set as the young American netter showcased his versatility when Moutet lured him into several top-spin baseline rallies.
Hoping that Tien would make an error, Moutet fired looping top-spin shots in desperation, but the younger star didn’t bite the trap and sustained his explosive groundstrokes.
With another victory in the center stage, Tien became the youngest man to march to the Australian Open fourth round since Rafael Nadal in 2005.
