Houston
Tien ‘doubles clay Ws’, reaches Houston QFs
American is into 10th Tour-level QF
April 03, 2026
Kenneth Richmond/Getty Images
Third seed Learner Tien is into the Houston quarter-finals.
By ATP Staff
Learner Tien advanced to his maiden ATP Tour clay-court quarter-final at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship on Thursday when he downed Nishesh Basavareddy 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
Following his win, the 20-year-old hilariously signed the camera lens, “Doubled my clay Ws today”, referring to his 1-6 tour-level clay-court record entering the ATP 250.
Tien created 15 break chances, converting three, according to Infosys ATP Stats, to improve to 3-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Basavareddy.
“I thought my energy dropped a little bit in the second and he started playing much better obviously,” Tien said in his on-court interview. “I was just trying to come out and not get broken in the first game [of the third set]. Just happy with how I raised my energy level and my overall playing in the third.”
Up next for the third seed is Roman Andres Burruchaga, who overcame Brandon Nakashima 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.