How does he do it?

Learner Tien is un-stop-pa-ble. How far can he go?

To tell you, I already saw him burnt out in Rome against Jodar, that was about 20 days ago. Then he goes and wins Geneva with 4 very tough matches. Then he loses that set against Garin here looking really wiped out. And he finally gets to Diaz, goes down 2 sets to 1 with the Argentinian serving for the match. Since the 2nd set, he already had that slightly nonchalant walk that you don’t really know how to read. Diaz was playing his hand perfectly, and every point was tough. Not to mention the heat they were playing in. For 99% of players, I would’ve said ‘this is too much now.’ But it has to be said that Learner recovers quickly… until he breaks at some point. He’s not a machine either. He does this to us very often, especially at the Australian Open. But he ends up losing, too tired. I’m thinking of his fairly quick loss against Sonego...

So you need to target the right moment, the right opponent. And here, on clay, I see a good chance that Cobolli pulls it off.

The Italian has tidied his room in this tournament, and he’s not getting dragged into marathon matches. Solid on both sides, few errors, aggressive… Right from the start,

I already saw him as the favorite, but now with Learner’s physical gauge starting to be seriously depleted, I’d be really very surprised if the American were to come out on top.

Let me repeat that Tien can play his smart tennis largely because he has exceptional physical abilities. But as soon as that drops a bit, he’s not the guy with the huge serve, forehand, or backhand who’ll get free points anyway.