Lerner Tien beats Daniil Medvedev to become youngest US man to reach third round in Australia since Pete Sampras

MELBOURNE, Australia — Lerner Tien, a 19-year-old qualifier from California, became the youngest American man to reach the third round of the Australian Open since Pete Sampras in 1990, beating a racket-tossing Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (8 ), 1–6, 7–6 (10–7).

It was all in the 4-hour, 49-minute contest, including a — hard to believe — six-minute rain delay that interrupted play shortly before 2:30 a.m. and Tien serving at 5-all, 15-all in the fifth period. When the set resumed, Medvedev broke and served to win 6-5, but Tien didn’t give up. He immediately broke back from first to 10 to force a closing tiebreaker that he emerged to win shortly before 3 p.m., nearly two hours after failing to convert his initial match point.

“Belief is a big thing in being successful and winning in general. I always go to the court believing that I can win,” said Tien, who showed up at his press conference in a white cardboard box with a pepperoni pizza. “I think the match is more important than any other match. Not trying to remember. I was just going to go out there, have fun, see what I could do.”

About the post-match snacks, he said, “It’s either going to be a celebration or a dilemma, like, to deal with. It definitely feels better to celebrate more.”

The result was eyebrow-raising given the wide gap in experience and achievements of the two players at the Margaret Court Arena. Tien is ranked 121st and owns a career Grand Slam record of 0-3 before this week; Medvedev was seeded No.5, won the 2021 US Open and was runner-up at Melbourne Park in three of the past four years, including 12 months ago.

“It was definitely harder than it could have been, but, whatever,” Tien told the court immediately afterward, then told the crowd: “I really appreciate you all being here. I know it’s late. I don’t know what time it is. .”

Because of the time difference, the match ended around 8 p.m. back home in California, and Tien took the microphone to speak directly to his family — he said he hoped they were tuned in to the TV.

“I don’t know if my parents are still watching. … I love you. Thank you for always supporting me from all over the world,” said Tien. “I know you want to be here. I hope you can be here too.”

The left-handed Tien played fearlessly and almost flawlessly for stretches, surprisingly thriving on long exchanges on the baseline: Across the first two sets, she won 32 of 51 points that lasted nine or more strokes, even coming out on top. One that went 45 shots and the other lasted 32

Tien was one point away from victory when leading 7-6 in the third set tiebreaker. But Medvedev erased that with an ace of 122 mph and finally converted his third set point a little after 1am.

Medvedev was penalized a point in that set after showing signs of the same frustration that led him to destroy a small camera hanging from the net by smashing it with his racket during a surprisingly tough, five-set first-round win. Opponents are ranked 418th.

After trailing 4-3 in the second set when Tien delivered a lob that landed on a baseline — not the only time he did to his 6-foot-6 foe — Medvedev pushed his tools to the sideline and knocked it away. Until the court reached an advertising panel near its bench. In other moments of rage, Medvedev hit a ball against the back wall, smashed a camera behind a baseline and punched his racket bag. He also resented being called for two consecutive foot-faults during the second-set tiebreaker, leading to a double-fault.

It was Medvedev’s first tournament of the season — his wife recently gave birth to their second child — and the 28-year-old Russian has never shown his best tennis.

Tien reached two junior Grand Slam singles finals at the Australian Open and US Open in 2023 and played a semester of college tennis in Southern California before turning professional that year.

He’s just 19 years old, and the youngest American to get this far at the Australian Open since the 18-year-old Sampras reached the fourth round in 1990. Sampras won the US Open in his first round later that year. 14 Grand Slam titles.

The match is the latest notable result for a teenager in Melbourne this year.

Tien joined Brazil’s Joao Fonseca and Spain’s Martin Landlus as the first trio to qualify for the men’s bracket since Wimbledon in 2017. , who beat No. 6 Casper Rudd, became the first pairing among teenagers Has beaten top-10 men in the same Grand Slam tournament since Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray at Wimbledon in 2006.

Now Tien makes it three. He called what Fonseca and Mensik did “definitely quite inspiring.”