Melbourne, Australia — MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Learners Tien and Alex Michelsen were born about 15 months apart and first met 10 years ago when they were competing in a Southern California tennis tournament for children.
Tien, now 19, and Michelsen, 20, are close friends, frequently play the video game Fortnite together, trained with each other at Orange County’s Tier 1 Academy throughout the offseason and are once again competing in the same events. It’s Grand Slam stage time and on Monday both will be playing in the fourth round of the Australian Open.
This is the first run of this depth in the majors.
“It was really nice to be able to do it in the same place. The lockers are right next to each other, so we often run into each other before and after games. It’s nice to see a familiar face so far away from home,” Tien said. “If you had told us two or three years ago that this would happen now, it would be a bit strange to think. It’s funny how it all played out.”
Tien, who had to go through qualifying last week, is the youngest player to reach the second week of the men’s bracket at Melbourne Park since a player named Rafael Nadal was 18 in 2005.
Was he okay?
Michelsen saw big things in Tien quite a while ago.
“I remember my whole group of friends saying, ‘Oh my god, you’re a learner.’ He was always so much better.” “I’m a huge fan,” said Michelson, who added a third-round win over No. 19 Karen Khachanov of Russia on Saturday to her first-round win over No. 11 Stefanos Tsitsipas, the 2023 Australian Open runner-up.
“He was 10 years old and shot 14 and 16 under par and did very well,” Michelsen said. “Then we started training together in 2021. …So maybe (for four years) we were pretty good friends.”
Thien defeated France’s Corentin Moutet 7-6(10), 6-3, 6-3 in a relatively leisurely 2 hours and 49 minutes, two hours shorter than his five-set marathon victory that ended at 3 a.m. on Saturday. I went ahead. On Friday, he played against No. 5 Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 U.S. Open champion.
“He’s playing unbelievably,” Michelsen said of his good friend, then added with a smile, holding his thumb and forefinger close together. “Maybe I can get 1% of the credit because I beat up on that guy every day.”
Marcos Giron, another player from California who often practices with Tien and Michelsen, said it was “amazing” and “impressive” to do so well at that age.
“They play differently, but they’re both good,” Giron said after losing to No. 1 Jannik Sinner on Saturday night. “Court awareness. Both forehand and backhand are very accurate. You can redirect. You can come to the net. He has good hands. They are jacks of all trades.”
There are two more American players in the fourth round, both seeded. #12 Tommy Paul (27 years old), #21 Ben Shelton (22 years old). The other quartet — Paul, eventual runner-up Taylor Fritz, Brandon Nakashima and Francis Tiafoe — entered the rounds of the U.S. Open in September, marking the first time in 21 years they have competed in back-to-back Slam tournaments, with four American men among the last. 16 players have advanced to back-to-back major tournaments. (Three American women will participate in the fourth round in Melbourne.)
“In addition to all the guys who are already at the top in the country, there are more coming,” said Shelton, who, like Paul, has already reached the Slam semifinals. “It’s really starting to reveal itself.”
On Sunday, Paul was scheduled to face Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. On Monday, Michelsen will face Australia’s Alexander de Minaur, Tien and Lorenzo Sonego (Italy) and Shelton and Gael Monfils (France).
“I am not surprised. This is something we’ve been talking about for a while,” said Tien’s coach, Eric Diaz. “We saw Alex succeed and we always expected Learner to do this too.”
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Howard Fendrich has been AP’s tennis writer since 2002. Find his story here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
