Daniil Medvedev has heaped prasie on Learner Tien – comapring the challenge of facing him to that of tennis’ greatest-ever players. The Russian secured a 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 win over Tien in the Shanghai Masters round of 16 on Wednesday.
Medvedev’s victory over the American was his first in three meetings, having lost to him in the Australian Open and Beijing Open this year. The former world No.1 has endured a tough year, winning just one grand slam match in 2025.
But there will be hope for Medvedev that his hard-fought victory could kickstart a run of form. And the 29-year-old dished out plenty of praise to his beaten opponent.
The 20-time ATP titlist compared the task of facing Tien to that of coming up against tennis greats Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer as well as current world No.1 and No.2 Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.
“I don’t have the exact words, but in my opinion, he’s an impressive tennis player,” Medvedev said after beating Tien.
“When I say ‘tennis player,’ I mean the whole thing, the whole tennis player.
“He doesn’t have a serve, and the serve is the most important thing in modern tennis. He doesn’t have an incredible serve, and yet he’s capable of playing sensational tennis at just 19 years old.
“Being only 19, he has a lot of time to progress, and that gives him a very bright future. You never know what can happen; tennis is a very tough sport, but I’m happy to have won against him because, probably, beyond the greats like the Big Three, Sinner, and Alcaraz, he’s perhaps the toughest opponent I’ve ever faced. I think he could be world number one in the future.”
Medvedev faces Alex de Minaur next in the quarter-finals as he looks to set up a last-four clash against Arthur Rinderknech. He would then face a final against either Djokovic or world No.204 Valentin Vacherot.
“I have another match ahead of me in which I’m going to run a lot again, so I hope to have good recovery sessions,” Medvedev said. “He’s a very tough opponent who’s playing very, very good tennis this season.
“It’s going to be an interesting challenge, no doubt, but I’m also playing well, so we’ll see.”