Subsequent Gen
Learner Tien on the #NextGenATP surge: ‘Everybody needs to catch the highest man’
Final 12 months’s Jeddah finalist, now the World No. 28, returns with unfinished enterprise
November 28, 2025
Peter Staples/ATP Tour
Learner Tien is at a career-high No. 28 within the PIF ATP Rankings.
By Jerome Coombe
By the point Learner Tien steps onto courtroom in Jeddah for his second straight look on the Subsequent Gen ATP Finals offered by PIF, he’ll not be the fresh-faced teenager who shocked the sphere as final 12 months’s finalist.
As a substitute, the American arrives as one of many breakout revelations of 2025. Tien’s surge into the World’s High 30, deep runs throughout all surfaces, and first ATP Tour trophy in Metz within the ultimate week of the common season have shifted expectations from ‘promising prospect’ to ‘future fixture’. But if there’s one factor that is still the identical after his meteoric rise, it’s that he refuses to shrink underneath the highlight.
“I do a superb job of protecting expectations off myself,” Tien instructed ATPTour.com in Paris in October. “I strive to not put an excessive amount of strain on myself, I simply attempt to are available in and revel in as a result of I’m enjoying all these tournaments for the primary time. I’m simply having fun with my expertise and that takes quite a lot of weight off my shoulders: I’m in a position to go on the market freely and that helps me loads.
“I wish to maintain my routines fairly related, however normally enjoying from place to put it’s a little bit powerful. I do my finest to attempt to maintain most issues the identical after I can.”
That freedom interprets into fearlessness on courtroom — particularly in opposition to the game’s heavyweights — and it was on full show on the Australian Open in January. As a qualifier ranked World No. 121, Tien surprised fifth seed and three-time finalist Daniil Medvedev after 4 hours and 49 minutes of gruelling second-round motion.
It didn’t cease in Melbourne, the place he reached the fourth spherical, nonetheless. Time and time once more, he walked into marquee stadiums and swung with nothing to lose, compiling a 5-3 document in opposition to High 10 gamers, in accordance with the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, throughout the 2025 season.
“I actually take pleasure in these matches, I see them as nice alternatives. I don’t assume there’s quite a lot of expectation on me to win, particularly popping out in the beginning of the 12 months,” stated Tien, who additionally defeated Alexander Zverev, Ben Shelton, Andrey Rublev and Lorenzo Musetti. “I simply exit, play free, and play effectively, and I’ve been lucky sufficient to come back by quite a lot of them.”
Tien is a part of a generational surge powered by the identical younger skills who shared the stage with him final 12 months in Jeddah. Joao Fonseca — who beat Tien within the title match — and Miami champion Jakub Mensik have joined him in turning the 2025 season into a press release 12 months for his or her age group.
Collectively, they’re main the following wave of males’s tennis, aiming to observe the trail carved out by former Subsequent Gen ATP Finals offered by PIF champions Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, now the World No. 1 and World No. 2.
“I feel quite a lot of the youthful guys are doing effectively,” stated Tien. “Typically it’s powerful, and folks come out a little bit higher than others through the first 12 months as they don’t actually understand how quite a lot of the brand new stuff can go. However the younger guys do a superb job of pushing one another. Everybody needs to catch the ‘high man’. It’s been nice all of the younger guys pushing one another this 12 months.”
Former World No. 2 Michael Chang, who joined Tien’s workforce in July, has been performed a key position in accelerating the 19-year-old’s speedy development. Chang’s affect was speedy, offering the 19-year-old with the street map of somebody who’s lived the pressures he’s solely starting to come across.
“He brings quite a lot of expertise, quite a lot of tennis data,” Tien stated of Chang, the 34-time tour-level champion. “I don’t have a lot expertise myself because it’s my first time round, so having somebody on my workforce who actually is aware of how issues go, and having that a few years, simply actually helps me loads.”
Returning to Jeddah this 12 months with unfinished enterprise, Tien will convey the boldness of a High 30 breakthrough, the fearless mentality that helped him topple a number of High 10 stars, and the poise of a younger star studying to thrive underneath strain.
The 2025 Subsequent Gen ATP Finals offered by PIF might be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from 17-21 December.
