{"id":465219,"date":"2026-03-09T03:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T03:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/465219\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T03:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T03:04:08","slug":"indian-wells-star-sends-handwritten-message-to-rival-after-causing-huge-upset-tennis-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/465219\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian Wells star sends handwritten message to rival after causing huge upset | Tennis | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Learner Tien caused the biggest upset of the day so far in Indian Wells on Sunday, taking out No. 8 seed Ben Shelton<\/a> in the third round, 7-6(3) 4-6 6-3. The 20-year-old American has become one of the brightest young stars on the tour over the last year, and now has a 6-5 record against top-10 opposition.<\/p>\n

Tien\u2019s first big win against a top player came at last year\u2019s Australian Open<\/a> when, as a teenage qualifier, he shocked Daniil Medvedev<\/a> in the second round. Since then, they\u2019ve formed a thrilling rivalry, and Tien now leads their head-to-head 3-1.<\/p>\n

The world No. 27 will now join forces with his Russian rival in Indian Wells, as they have entered the doubles tournament together. And Tien immediately wrote a message to Medvedev on the camera lens after taking out Shelton, sharing his excitement for their upcoming team debut. \u201cTime for dubs,\u201d he wrote, adding a smiley face.<\/p>\n

California-born Tien is now through to the last 16 in Indian Wells for the first time, and he\u2019ll be hoping to carry that form into the doubles with former world No. 1 Medvedev. After earning his sixth career top-10 win over Shelton, the 20-year-old commended his opponent for battling through despite being unwell.<\/p>\n

Shelton is one of several players who picked up a virus this week in Indian Wells, with Matteo Berrettini among those affected. And Tien said: \u201cIt\u2019s great, it\u2019s great. I just want to say, Ben came out not feeling 100 per cent. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s been feeling great all week. But he\u2019s an amazing competitor; he came out and gave it his all. I just want to say huge props to him. But I\u2019m super happy to be in the fourth round, especially here it\u2019s super special, and I have dubs this afternoon, so I\u2019m excited.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven when he\u2019s not at his best, his serve is still incredible. His serve and forehand were really firing in some moments of the match, and you just never know. Nerves definitely played a role. I feel like I was missing some shots that I usually wouldn\u2019t. My rhythm I think wasn\u2019t fully there in some moments, but I\u2019m happy with how I stayed present and how I stayed present and how I competed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think about rankings when I step on the court. I really believe that any time I step on the court, I have a chance to win. I just go out and compete, and whatever happens, happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tien is due to take to the Stadium 4 court with Medvedev in a matter of hours as they put their rivalry to one side and team up to take on cousins and top-30 singles stars Valentin Vacherot and Arthur Rinderknech. Ahead of their exciting doubles link-up, recent Dubai champion Medvedev said Tien had one of the highest \u2018tennis IQs\u2019 on tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cLearner, for sure. Yeah, I played him four times now, and in a way every match was different, but the way he, yeah, he manages to control the court, to control the point to his favour is really impressive. We’re playing doubles tomorrow, but I really like his game and kind of hoping he can do well in his career,\u201d the world No. 11 explained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Learner Tien caused the biggest upset of the day so far in Indian Wells on Sunday, taking out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[9475,11818,30732,15929,101,118,872,166816,166817,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-465219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ben-shelton","9":"tag-daniil-medvedev","10":"tag-indian-wells","11":"tag-learner-tien","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tennis","14":"tag-tennis-news","15":"tag-tien-medvedev","16":"tag-tien-shelton","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}