They call the Australian Open the ‘Happy Slam’, and that’s certainly been the case for young American Learner Tien, who is back in the third round at the opening major of the year.
Twelve months ago the 20-year-old – at the time ranked No.121 in the world – qualified and then stunned three-time runner-up Daniil Medvedev in a deciding set tiebreak in a match that finished at nearly 3am Melbourne time.
The left-hander from California went on to reach the fourth round during a season that saw him finish runner-up at the very strong ATP 500 in Beijing, win his first trophy in Metz and end the year with the Next Gen ATP Finals silverware in Jeddah.
Now ranked No.29 in the world and seeded 25th, Tien is back in the third round after beating Alexander Shevchenko 6-2 5-7 6-1 6-0 at ANZ Arena on Wednesday.
Tien, coached by 1996 finalist Michael Chang, next plays Portugal’s Nuno Borges before a potential rematch with Medvedev in the last 16 on Sunday.
The American showed his sense of humour earlier in the week when he was asked whether he’d watched many of Chang’s matches. “There's not that much video from way back then,” he joked.
Wednesday saw the start of second-round matches in the top half of both singles draws, with world No1s Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka in action at Rod Laver Arena.
Alcaraz came through a 78-minute first set before finishing a 7-6(4) 6-3 6-2 winner against Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann, who proposed to his girlfriend Sofie at the nearby Red Bluff Lookout prior to the event.
Alcaraz, who will play Frenchman Corentin Moutet on Friday, revealed he’s been playing golf with Roger Federer during his off days, describing the Swiss star’s skills on the fairway as “beautiful”.
Two-time champion Sabalenka continued her smooth progress through the draw by overpowering Chinese qualifier Zhuoxuan Bai 6-3 6-1. The recent Brisbane champion has now won a staggering 45 of her last 50 sets at the Australian Open.
There will be no meeting with Britain’s Emma Raducanu in the third round for Sabalenka though, after the former US Open champion became the only seeded casualty in the women’s draw on Day 4, losing to Anastasia Potapova 7-6(3) 6-2.
It was generally a stress-free day for the players towards the top of the WTA rankings with Coco Gauff, Jasmine Paolini, Mirra Andreeva, Elina Svitolina and Victoria Mboko all among those into the third round.
Gauff looked almost perfect during a 6-2 6-2 passage against Serbia’s Olga Danilovic, while Andreeva needed little over an hour to fire past Greek former world No.3 Maria Sakkari 6-0 6-4.
After taking the Auckland title during her AO 26 build-up, Svitolina has now won all seven of her matches this year, including Wednesday’s 7-5 6-1 success over young Pole Linda Klimovicova.
Canadian talent Mboko went through in two sets 6-4 6-3 against American Caty McNally to set up a meeting with 14th seed Clara Tauson, and No.7 seed Paolini won a rain-interrupted match late in the day against Magdalena Frech.
It was a similar story for the top seeds in the men’s draw too, although home hope Alex De Minaur had to fight hard early on before frustrating Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic 6-7(5) 6-2 6-2 6-1 under the RLA lights. American Frances Tiafoe, a four-set winner over Argentina’s Francisco Comesana, awaits in an intriguing third-round clash.
Brand new ATP top 10 player Alexander Bublik continued his perfect start to the season, winning 7-5 6-4 7-5 against Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics to back up his recent run to the Hong Kong title. The Kazakh is six for six for the season.
Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev all needed four sets to move into the round of 32, with Rublev revealing his magic formula during his days off in Australia.
“Ice bath and then coffee, sleep, coffee, sleep, practice and sleep,” he told on-court interviewer Colin Fleming after beating Portugal’s Jaime Faria.
Explosive Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina survived one of the matches of the day to scrape through against Reilly Opelka 6-4 in the fifth after nearly four hours. He plays Tommy Paul on Friday.