A first for "the apprentice"

Learner Tien is going to play a Masters 1000 quarterfinal for the first time in his career. And what better way than to face the very best on hard courts in recent years!

“Sometimes I’d look over at that corner over there in the stands; that’s where I was sitting when I was little.”

Young Learner is living a waking dream in Indian Wells. A native of Irvine, California, he used to come watch the pros play here in Palm Springs, allowing himself to dream. His friends and family are in the crowd. In short, everything’s in place for him to pull off something big here, right? Well, not necessarily... I find the American below his usual level. He has phases where he’s excellent, and others where he’s very average. Especially on the backhand side. His strength is using the geometry of the court perfectly with his touch, particularly his lefty forehand, but if his opponent has a good down-the-line backhand, I recently saw against Tiafoe that it neutralized one of his greatest weapons. The slightly more reassuring aspect is his serve, especially from the advantage side. Honestly, I think he wins more than 80% of his service points from that side. He varies his spots wonderfully, and often moves his opponent far out wide, leaving a nice open space. We know that this lefty serve can bother Jannik. But for me, it won’t be enough.