Tien tops Norrie in Acapulco on ATP 500 main-draw debut

Learner Tien continued his confident start to his ATP 500 career on Monday at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC.

After coming through qualifying at the hard-court event in Acapulco, #NextGenATP Tien downed his fellow lefty Cameron Norrie 7-6(5), 6-3 to win his maiden main-draw match at ATP 500 level. The American fired 24 winners to Norrie’s 19 and crucially produced just 19 unforced errors to his opponent’s 39 in his one-hour, 52-minute win.

Teenage dream ✨

Learner Tien makes the perfect debut in Acapulco, d. Norrie 7-6(5) 6-3 to move into the second round.@AbiertoTelcel | #AMT2025 pic.twitter.com/hZOKBsyRL0

— ATP Tour (@atptour) February 25, 2025

Both Tien and Norrie struggled on serve throughout their maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head clash. There were eight breaks of serve in the match overall, with Tien ultimately prevailing after converting five of seven break points he earned, according to Infosys ATP Stats.

The 19-year-old Tien reached the championship match at the 2024 Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF in December and continued his rapid rise by reaching the fourth round on event debut at January’s Australian Open. He has now become the youngest player to record a main-draw win in Acapulco since then-19-year-old Lorenzo Musetti reached the semi-finals in 2021.

Now up 12 spots to No. 71 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, Tien is well-placed to rise to a new career high in the PIF ATP Rankings next Monday. He will hope to continue his Acapulco run when he takes on top seed Alexander Zverev or Matteo Arnaldi in the second round.