ATP Tour

Watch: How Tien trod his ‘baby steps’ to settle into life on the ATP Tour

Learner Tien has barely taken a backwards step since becoming a regular on the ATP Tour at the start of 2025.

Having reached the final at the season-ending Next Gen ATP Finals in 2024, the American lefty made a seemingly seamless transition to life on the elite tennis merry-go-round. Tien is well aware of the day-to-day work and commitment to his craft that was required to forge such a development, while he also acknowledges that support he received from the PIF ATP Next Gen Accelerator was a key enabler of his early successes on Tour.

Tien is among the now-established stars to have previously qualified for the PIF ATP Next Gen Accelerator, a programme that offers additional playing opportunities and support to some of the sport’s most promising talents across junior, college and traditional pathways. In 2026, Joao Fonseca and Rafael Jodar are among those to have qualified for the Accelerator.

“Starting out when I was pretty new to the Tour, the Accelerator gave me entry into a couple of tournaments that I wouldn’t have gotten into off my own ranking,” the 20-year-old Tien, who notched an impressive 36 tour-level match wins in his debut 2025 season, said in the latest episode of the PIF ATP Next Gen Accelerator series. “It was really good for me, just the exposure in general, early in my career.”

Learn more about the PIF ATP Next Gen Accelerator here

In the episode, Tien reflects on how early opportunities at ATP 250 tournaments set him up for a further push up the PIF ATP Rankings and title-winning success: The American finished 2025 by winning his first tour-level trophy in Metz, and then triumphed at the Next Gen ATP Finals.

Watch Learner Tien's episode of the PIF ATP Next Gen Accelerator series:

“After graduating the Accelerator in 2025, I was able to win my first ATP Tour event. I was able to end the year winning the Next Gen Finals, and I was able to take that momentum late from last year into 2026," Tien, who has since risen as high as World No. 12, said.

“Progression is a lot about baby steps, and I think that having access to the Accelerator early in my career was very big.”