![\"Learner](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/tien-basavareddy-h2h-jeddah-2025.jpg\")
<\/p>\n Next Gen ATP Finals
\n Friends Turn Foes: Tien meets Basavareddy, Blockx faces Budkov Kjaer in Jeddah SFs<\/p>\n
Preview the Next Gen ATP presented by PIF semi-finals<\/p>\n
December 19, 2025<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Corinne Dubreuil\/ATP Tour<\/p>\n
Learner Tien faces Nishesh Basavareddy in the semi-finals of the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF.
\n By ATP Staff<\/p>\n
Friends collide on Saturday as American Learner Tien<\/a> faces countryman Nishesh Basavareddy<\/a> and Alexander Blockx<\/a> meets Nicolai Budkov Kjaer<\/a> for a place in the championship match at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF<\/a>.<\/p>\n Close friends Blockx and Budkov Kjaer square off in the first semi-final at 7 p.m local time, followed by the all-American battle between last year\u2019s finalist Tien and sixth seed Basavareddy, not before 9 p.m.<\/p>\n It is a memorable stage for players who grew up crossing paths on the junior circuit, and are now reunited in Jeddah, standing across the net from each other and within one win of a final berth at the 20-and-under event. <\/p>\n [1] Learner Tien<\/a> (USA) vs [6] Nishesh Basavareddy<\/a> (USA) [not before 9 p.m.] The 20-year-old has built his winning streak to eight consecutive matches and will put that to the test against Basavareddy, who he defeated 7-6(5), 6-3, 6-2 at this year\u2019s Wimbledon<\/a>, their lone Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve played a decent bit since we were very young,\u201d Tien said of Basavareddy. \u201cWe grew up pretty close to each other, both from the States, so we\u2019d see each other at a lot of Challengers. It\u2019s been cool for him to make his way up as I\u2019ve been making my way up. It\u2019s great to see a familiar face at these tournaments, so I think It\u2019ll be cool to share the court with him.\u201d<\/p>\n The clash between Tien and Basavareddy promises to be a tug of war in court coverage and a life-size chess match from the baseline. Both players have relatively new voices in their corner. Basavareddy this month announced his new partnership with Gilles Cervara<\/a>, a renowned coach who most recently worked with Daniil Medvedev<\/a>. Former World No. 2 Michael Chang<\/a> coaches Tien, after officially joining the lefty\u2019s team in August.\n<\/p>\n [2] Alexander Blockx<\/a> (BEL) vs [5] Nicolai Budkov Kjaer<\/a> (NOR) [starts at 7 p.m.] \u201cI think I have a big serve,\u201d Budkov Kjaer said before the tournament. \u201cThat is the key thing for me if I want to beat the best guys, I have to have that in the toolbox.\u201d<\/p>\n You May Also Like: Budkov Kjaer: A \u2018sleepless night\u2019, sweet revenge & a dream run in Jeddah <\/a><\/p>\n Blockx and Budkov Kjaer are close friends who both claimed junior Slam titles before transitioning to professional tennis. Blockx won the 2023 Australian Open<\/a> boys\u2019 singles event \u2014 defeating Tien in the final \u2014 while Budkov Kjaer captured the 2024 Wimbledon<\/a> junior crown.<\/p>\n The second seed Blockx is into the semi-finals after posting a perfect 3-0 record in round-robin action. Budkov Kjaer began the week 2-0 before suffering a four-set loss to Tien on Thursday. Budkov Kjaer\u2019s head-to-head win against Rafael Jodar<\/a> was enough for the 19-year-old to secure second place over the Spaniard, who also finished 2-1 in Blue Group. The Oslo native, one of six players to win a season-leading four ATP Challenger titles this season, is the second Norwegian (Casper Ruud<\/a>) to compete at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Next Gen ATP Finals Friends Turn Foes: Tien meets Basavareddy, Blockx faces Budkov Kjaer in Jeddah SFs Preview…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-356597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The only players in this year\u2019s field who are making their second consecutive appearance, Tien and Basavareddy bring added experience to the semi-finals. The lefty Tien cracked the Top 30 of the PIF ATP Rankings in November following his maiden tour-level triumph in Metz.<\/p>\n
Both players possess the ability to rip the felt off the ball from the first strike, each averaging 11 aces per match this week, according to Infosys ATP Stats. Control of the baseline will be paramount as Blockx and Budkov Kjaer fight to dictate rallies in their maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head clash. In the first-to-4 format, there is no margin for error.<\/p>\n