While Ben Shelton and Learner Tien were warming up for their recent match at the BNP Paribas Open a few days ago, Tennis Channel analyst Jim Courier mused over the contrast between the two young men.
“When Ben Shelton walks into a room, you go, ‘Oh, that guy’s an athlete. He’s a specimen. He’s not like us.’ And then Lerner Tien walks in, and he’s pretty unassuming. He’s graceful. He’s smooth. You can tell that he’s got something going on, but you’re not sure what it is. Is he, like, a tech wizard? Is he, you know, a violinist? What is it?”
What he is, as Courier went on to describe to his listeners, is nothing less than an exceptional, perhaps generational athlete much like his mold-busting current coach, Michael Chang. To assign Tien an occupation, just add the modifier “tennis” to the noun, “magician.”
Read more: Learner Tien flashed back to being a kid during Indian Wells upset of Ben Shelton
The ability to win when you’re playing poorly is a skill that your typical tennis professional lusts for, and which great players master—often years into a career. Tien, a 20-year old from Irvine, Calif., already has that talent. He demonstrated on Tuesday afternoon, when he became the youngest American man in this century to advance to the quarterfinals of the what is arguably the premier Masters 1000 event on the calendar.
