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Third seed Learner Tien is into the Houston quarter-finals.
By ATP Staff
Learner Tien advanced to his maiden ATP Tour clay-court quarter-final at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship on Thursday when he downed Nishesh Basavareddy 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
Following his win, the 20-year-old hilariously signed the camera lens, “Doubled my clay Ws today”, referring to his 1-6 tour-level clay-court record entering the ATP 250.
Tien created 15 break chances, converting three, according to Infosys ATP Stats, to improve to 3-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Basavareddy.
“I thought my energy dropped a little bit in the second and he started playing much better obviously,” Tien said in his on-court interview. “I was just trying to come out and not get broken in the first game [of the third set]. Just happy with how I raised my energy level and my overall playing in the third.”
Up next for the third seed is Roman Andres Burruchaga, who overcame Brandon Nakashima 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.
Second seed Frances Tiafoe began his Houston campaign with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 victory against Australian Rinky Hijikata. With NBA star Kevin Durant among those in attendance, the 2023 champion Tiafoe displayed his trademark shotmaking ability throughout the two-hour, 28-minute clash.
Playing his first clay-court tournament since reaching the Roland Garros quarter-finals last season, Tiafoe is into the Houston quarter-finals for the fifth consecutive year.
“First match on clay was definitely funny, I was still doing some stuff I was doing on a hard court just trying to get my feet under me,” said Tiafoe. “But it’s good. I got to play a couple hours out here. I’m happy to get through and get another chance to play a bit better tomorrow.”
The 28-year-old Tiafoe is 14-0 after winning the first set this season.
All four of Thursday’s matches went three sets, with Alexei Popyrin finishing the day by ousting Alex Michelsen 6-0, 4-6, 6-1. Popyrin secured back-to-back tour-level wins for the first time since his Toronto quarter-final run in August.
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