Can Learner Tien continue his meteoric rise?

Learner Tien is ranked a career-high No. 18 right now -- the third highest among American men. EPA/MARTIAL TREZZINID'Arcy MaineMultiple AuthorsMay 25, 2026, 11:44 AM ETEmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsLEARNER TIEN HAD a realization as he prepared for his first full year on the ATP Tour. He had just turned 19 and was fresh off a runner-up appearance at the 2024 ATP Next Gen Finals. He had taken home three Challenger Tour trophies. But something occurred to him as he was readying to compete in the qualifying draw at the Australian Open. He was going to lose many more tournaments than he was going to win. He wasn't used to that -- he had been successful at the lower levels and as a junior -- and he wasn't exactly thrilled about it. But he knew it was something he was going to have to make peace with if he was going to survive life as a professional tennis player. "I never want to be OK or complacent with losing, but I just wanted myself to know that one loss isn't the end of the world," Tien told ESPN this spring. "You're playing great players, and there are no easy matches. There are so many weeks in a year, and one loss isn't going to make or break your whole year." He wasn't entirely sold on the new mentality, but at first, he didn't need to be. Tien rolled through qualifying in Melbourne and into his first Australian Open main draw. It was there -- and most notably during his second-round, five-set upset of former world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev -- that he transformed from a virtual unknown to a surging star on the rise. He ultimately advanced to the fourth round, and his ranking skyrocketed. Since his breakthrough last season, Tien has continued to climb up the rankings to his current career high of No. 18. He has also collected more wins, including his first ATP title at the Moselle Open in November and a quarterfinal appearance at the 2026 Australian Open. But, as he expected, there have been plenty of losses and challenges, too. On Tuesday, he will look to earn his first victory at Roland Garros, after losing last season in the opening round. Facing former top-20 player Cristian Garin and then potentially playing No. 10 seed Flavio Cobolli in the third round won't be easy -- although momentum is on his side. After compiling a 2-2 record in Madrid and Rome to open the European clay-court season, Tien reached his first ATP career final on clay last week in Geneva and then won the title Saturday against Mariano Navone 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. And no matter how he fares in Paris, it's clear Tien's future looks bright. "I think he's a very talented player," Novak Djokovic said at Indian Wells in March. "He has had some great performances, and he's still very young. ... It seems like he's putting a good team around himself, and he's obviously from America and has the great support of the USTA and the whole thing that goes with it. "He has all of the preconditions or precursors of becoming a really good tennis player. So it's really up to him now, and time will tell." Tien, 20, won the Geneva Open on Saturday, becoming the youngest champion since 1989. MARTIAL TREZZINI/EPA/ShutterstockTIEN HAS LONG been seen as a really good tennis player by those around him. Sam Querrey, the former world No. 11, has known Tien since he was 9 or 10. Querrey frequently practiced, even well into his professional career, at the USTA Training Center in Carson, California, often with former world No. 21 Steve Johnson. Tien, who lived in nearby Irvine, was a frequent fixture on site, alongside his dad, Khuong. Initially what stuck out to both Querrey and Johnson wasn't necessarily something they saw about Tien's game but his personality. "We always used to say he was so unannoying," Querrey told ESPN. "It was a compliment we gave him. There weren't that many young kids there, and he would watch us play and he was just so mature for his age." And while other parents of promising young tennis players often peppered the professionals with incessant questions about what it would take to get to the next level, Tien's dad, who had been his first coach, never did. Querrey found their more laid-back approach refreshing, and he said he genuinely liked having Tien around. Eventually, by the time Tien was 12 or 13, Querrey and Johnson had him hit with them. Querrey remembers doing a two-on-one drill with him on several occasions, in which Tien and Johnson were on one side of the net and Querrey on the other. "He was a smart player and could hang in there from the baseline," Querrey, who is now a tennis analyst and hosts the "Nothing Major" podcast with Johnson and John Isner, said. In an interview with the ATP, Johnson praised Tien's "incredible" timing and said he knew he was special. "Even at that age you could just tell that there was something different because our ball didn't affect him the way it would most 12, 13-year-old kids," Johnson said. But, despite his admiration for Tien, Querrey wasn't quite as convinced as Johnson about T

Can Learner Tien continue his meteoric rise?

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