Tien's path from Challenger breakthrough to Tour stardom
While 2025 marked Learner Tien’s breakthrough season on the ATP Tour, the blueprint was drawn a year earlier, when the lefty proved himself at ITF World Tennis Tour events and ATP Challenger tournaments.
Far from the bright lights of the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF, which Tien won on Sunday to join an elite list of former champions including Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, the American was building his foundation.
Flashback to early 2024, and Tien endured a three-month layoff due to a seventh-rib injury that made moving his dominant arm difficult. Tien’s rapid rise ever since has rarely slowed. A part of why Tien stands where he does today is the ATP Challenger circuit, long regarded as the launchpad for rising stars. Even the sport’s greatest names, including the ‘Big Three’ had to pass through Challenger events.
Tien enjoyed a decorated junior career, twice winning the USTA Boys’ 18s National Championship (2022, 2023). He also twice reached the final of junior Slam tournaments. Tien announced his pro arrival in 2024, notably building a 28-match winning streak that included four ITF World Tennis Tour title runs and his first Challenger trophy.
“Playing tournaments like that really sets you up to take that next step,” Tien said Sunday after winning in Jeddah. “I think the amount of matches you have to play, especially if you win them — I think the confidence it gives you, really boosts you to reach the next level.”
Tien’s opponent in his maiden Challenger final appearance in Bloomfield Hills was countryman Nishesh Basavareddy, who he rematched in the Jeddah semi-finals last week. That Challenger meeting between Tien and Basavareddy was just the third final in Challenger history to feature two American teenagers. Tien, then 18 years old, needed a deciding set in all five of his matches that week.
“I was just really happy and relieved to get through all of them,” Tien said at the time. “I’m really happy to get my first Challenger. That was one of the goals that I wanted to cross off my list this year.”
Tien accomplished his goal of claiming one Challenger title and then some. He finished the 2024 season with a hat-trick of Challenger trophies, also triumphing in Las Vegas and Fairfield. He tallied a standout 35-9 match record at that level. In Las Vegas, Tien raced past former No. 17 Bernard Tomic 6-0, 6-1 in a 39-minute final, the shortest championship match in Challenger history.
<img alt=”Learner Tien in action at the ATP Challenger Tour 75 event in Fairfield, California.” style=”width:100%” src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/10/14/13/54/tien-fairfieldch-2024.jpg” />
Learner Tien in action at the 2024 Fairfield Challenger. Credit: Taube – Grossman Pro Tennis Tournament
The California native joined Andy Roddick, Sam Querrey and Taylor Fritz on an exclusive list of Americans to win three Challenger titles before their 19th birthday.
“If you would have told me six months ago that this is how my year would’ve looked, I probably would’ve been a bit skeptical,” Tien told commentator Mike Cation after winning the Fairfield Challenger.
Before Tien went on his stretch of 28 consecutive match wins, he posted a graphic on Instagram of two pickaxe-wielding diggers in a dirt tunnel. One gave up just short of the prize; the other kept swinging, inching closer to the diamonds he hoped — but didn’t know — lay on the other side.
That relentless mindset, evident in Tien’s steady rise, has translated into tangible results. The 20-year-old won his first tour-level title in November in Metz and finished the season at a career-high No. 28 in the PIF ATP Rankings. Upon returning to the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF, where last year he was a finalist, Tien went one step further to claim a $502,250 champion’s payout.
It is safe to say Tien’s ‘up and coming’ days have passed. Tien has arrived at the top of the sport. The intimate Challenger venues and the chase for a breakthrough are now part of his past. Tien successfully used those experiences to spring himself to where he is today.
“I think Challengers are great,” Tien said. “I think it prepares you to play a lot of matches in a row. Matches there aren’t easy.”
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