On Wednesday, a trio of decisive tie-breaks secured Learner Tien’s debut victory at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF.
The American, the number five seed, posted a letter of intent with his 4-3(6), 4-3(3), 2-4, 4-3(8) victory over Jakub Mensik. In a battle between two debutants from Jeddah, Tien stood firm in denying Mensik a miraculous comeback victory by saving a match point to move to 1-0 in the Blue Group.
‘It was difficult to play against a guy who serves so well,’ Tien said of Mensik, who served 20 aces for the best service performance in tournament history. ‘He puts a lot of pressure on the serve. When you have your chance, you have to capitalise because you don’t know when you will get more.
‘I feel great. I was up two sets to nil and found myself down by a break point in the fifth, which was difficult. I thought he played really well in the third and fourth, I felt I just didn’t give it to him. So I fought back in the fifth and I’m really happy that I overcame him’.
The resolute, left-handed style that guided Tien to three ATP Challenger Tour titles in 2024 was on display during their first Lexus ATP Head2Head match. Yet the 19-year-old was particularly damaging in the tie-break of the second set, during which he won four consecutive points from the back foot to take an unassailable 6/2 lead. Exuding confidence, Tien crowned a dominant breaker by placing a perfect lob on Mensik.
‘Funny to end the breaker with a rain drop lob there, pretty good tennis,’ said Eric Diaz, Tien’s coach. ‘Tactically, his backhand is pretty flat, so we liked some aspects of this match [with Mensik]. He’s playing us pretty well and he’s been strong.’
Mensik, who had lost only one tour-level match on concrete against an opponent outside the Top 50 in 2024 before Wednesday, rallied with a dominant serve to send the match sparking hopes of a comeback. Winning 84 per cent of the points behind his first serve, according to Infosys ATP Stats, Mensik found himself with match point, but was crushed by another gutsy tie-break from Tien to cross the line in two hours and 15 minutes.
World number 48 Mensik, the ATP Newcomer of the Year, will look to secure his first Blue Group victory when he faces top seed Arthur Fils or Joao Fonseca on Thursday.
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