{"id":440816,"date":"2026-01-27T13:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T13:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/440816\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T13:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T13:59:07","slug":"fast-learner-deep-ao-2026-run-shows-rate-of-tiens-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/440816\/","title":{"rendered":"Fast Learner: Deep AO 2026 run shows rate of Tien\u2019s rise"},"content":{"rendered":"

The tennis world learned a lesson at Australian Open 2026.<\/p>\n

Learner Tien<\/a> is the real deal.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old American arrived at Melbourne Park seeded at a major for the first time, a year after reaching the fourth round as a qualifier.<\/p>\n

MORE: All the scores from Day 10 at AO 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

His progression was unmistakable.<\/p>\n

Over the past 12 months, Tien has added significant weight to his game: his average first-serve speed climbed from 175km\/h to 185km\/h, he generated three per cent more winners from both wings, and he finished AO 2026 having used the drop shot 17 more times than at the same event last year.<\/p>\n

The creativity in Tien\u2019s arsenal was so pronounced that third seed Alexander Zverev, after edging him in four sets on Tuesday, offered praise.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think I’ve played someone with this level from the baseline since a very long time,\u201d Zverev said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what [coach] Michael Chang has done with him in the off-season, but the way he\u2019s playing is incredible. I probably would not have won today without my 20 aces.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE: AO 2026 men’s singles draw<\/a><\/p>\n

Tien will rue his nine double faults, but an 11-point edge in rallies lasting five shots or more underscored how far his baseline game has evolved.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, I know I’ve been playing great tennis. I know maybe even coming to this year in Brisbane, maybe I wasn’t playing amazing, and even starting off my tournament here, I wasn’t playing incredible by any means,\u201d Tien said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think very happy with how I was kind of improving with each match. I think, you know, match by match, day by day, I just felt a little bit more comfortable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I was seeing the ball a little bit better. By the end of the tournament, I was playing very well. I’m very happy about that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The tennis world learned a lesson at Australian Open 2026. Learner Tien is the real deal. The 20-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-440816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}