Last month, Learner Tien made a breakthrough run to the fourth round of the Australian Open as a qualifier, defeating No. 5-ranked Daniil Medvedev along the way for the first Top 5 win of his career.
In Acapulco tonight, he struck again.
The 19-year-old Californian has beaten another Top 5 player, this time Alexander Zverev, taking out the No. 2-ranked German in straight sets in the second round of the ATP 500 event, 6-3, 6-4.
With that victory, Tien becomes the youngest man to beat a Top 3 player since 2022, when Carlos Alcaraz—a younger 19 at the time—defeated a No. 3-ranked Zverev in the Madrid final.
More impressively, he becomes the youngest American man to beat a Top 3 player since all the way back in 2001, when Andy Roddick, who was 18 years old at the time, defeated a No. 1-ranked Gustavo Kuerten in the third round of the Masters 1000 event in Canada.
More to come…
