a second-round, five-set upset<\/a> over the 2021 U.S. Open champion.<\/p>\n\u201cFeels amazing. So special to do it, especially here,\u201d Tien said. \u201cThis is a big goal for me this year. I\u2019m just super happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tien’s breakthrough run last year at a major ended in the fourth round in Australia.<\/p>\n
He has already gone one better, becoming the youngest man since Nick Kyrgios in 2015 to make it to the last eight at Melbourne Park. And he’s the youngest American to do so at a major since Andy Roddick at the 2002 U.S. Open.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI feel like I have a lot more experience now,\u201d he said, comparing victories in Australia. \u201cI mean, I have only had a year since then, but that\u2019s a lot more than I had then.\u201d<\/p>\n
He still lives at home with his parents when he’s not away on tour, and now has 1989 French Open champion Michael Chang working with his coaching team. Not that he needs a lot of encouragement from the International Tennis Hall of Fame player.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always just tell him if there is something like blatantly obvious that I\u2019m missing, feel free to shout at me,\u201d Tien said. “If you can\u2019t get my attention, feel free to do whatever it takes to get me to notice what you\u2019re trying to tell me.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI feel like usually I\u2019m pretty attentive on things going on in the match … but sometimes there are just some things that in the heat of the moment I miss, so it\u2019s nice to have someone there that will just remind me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tien’s road will get tougher, with No. 3 Alexander Zverev, the runner-up in Melbourne last year, up next. Zverev beat Francisco Cerundolo 6-2, 6-4, 6-4, his first straight-set win in the tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was able to get (Zverev) the first time we played. The second time, he beat me pretty bad,\u201d Tien said. \u201cHe plays great tennis here, he\u2019s the defending finalist. It\u2019s going to be a challenge, but I\u2019m looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Tien had a nosebleed and needed a medical timeout for tissues and treatment after the third game, causing a seven-minute pause in the match. It didn’t slow him down.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I mean, came out very well. My nose started bleeding in the third game. I was really hoping that I wouldn\u2019t come back out cold and, you know, be a little bit thrown off by it,\u201d he said. \u201cThankfully, I was able to keep my momentum going.\u201d<\/p>\n
He doesn’t think the bleed is anything too serious, or regular, attributing it to Melbourne’s dry summer air.<\/p>\n
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Tien had the bulk of the crowd on Margaret Court Arena on his side, including dozens of fans wearing what are known locally as L Plates \u2014 signs that are mandatory for learner drivers and have a black L printed on a yellow background.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery year since I\u2019ve been coming here, the crowd support is amazing,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know why.\u201d<\/p>\n
On a momentum-seizing roll, Tien had Medvedev so rattled that the Russian tried to mix things up, including attempting an underarm serve.<\/p>\n
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\u201cHe played great, super-aggressive,\u201d Medvedev said. “Even when I was making good shots, he was making a better shot back.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had, like, unbelievable match where everything went in.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
More AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/a><\/p>\nJohn Pye, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Learner Tien is the youngest man to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals in 11…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[6774,2840,7641,49,48,16151,55085,13586,82,593],"class_list":["post-433874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-alexander-zverev","tag-australia","tag-australian-open","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-daniil-medvedev","tag-learner-tien","tag-melbourne","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433874","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=433874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}