MELBOURNE – Learner Tien and Alex Michelsen were born about 15 months apart and first crossed paths a decade ago when they were playing in Southern California tennis tournaments for kids.
Tien, now 19, and Michelsen, 20, are close friends, frequently play the video game Fortnite together, trained with each other all offseason at the Tier 1 academy in Orange County and, once again, are competing in the same event. Except this time, it is on a Grand Slam stage, and on Monday, they'll both be participating in the fourth round of the Australian Open.
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It’s the first run for each this deep at a major.
“Really cool we were able to do it at the same spot. Our lockers are right next to each other, so before and after our matches, we run into each other. It’s nice to see a familiar face somewhere so far from home,” Tien said. “If you told us two or three years ago that this would happen now, it would be a little crazy to think about. It’s funny how it all worked out.”
Tien, who had to go through qualifying last week, is the youngest player to make it to Week 2 in the men's bracket at Melbourne Park since someone by the name of Rafael Nadal was 18 in 2005.
That guy turned out OK, huh?
Michelsen saw big things from Tien quite a way's back.
“I remember my whole friend group, we were like, ‘Oh, my God, it’s Learner.’ He was always way better,” said Michelsen, who added a third-round victory over No. 19 Karen Khachanov of Russia on Saturday to a first-round win against No. 11 Stefanos Tsitsipas, the 2023 Australian Open runner-up.
“He was 10, playing, like, 14- and 16-unders, and doing just fine,” Michelsen said. “Then we started training together in 2021. ... So probably (for) about four years, we’ve been pretty good friends.”
Tien advanced Saturday by beating Corentin Moutet of France 7-6 (10), 6-3, 6-3 in a relatively leisurely 2 hours, 49 minutes — two hours shorter than his five-set marathon win that ended at nearly 3 a.m. on Friday against No. 5 Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 U.S. Open champion.
“He is playing unbelievable,” Michelsen said about his good pal, before putting his thumb and index finger close together and adding with a grin: “Maybe I get 1% credit for that, because I hit with him every day."
Another player from California who practices with Tien and Michelsen frequently, Marcos Giron, called it “amazing” and “impressive” for them to be doing this well at their age.
“They play differently, but both are great,” Giron said after losing to No. 1 Jannik Sinner on Saturday night. “The court awareness. Super accurate off both forehand and backhand. Can redirect. Can come up to the net. Have great hands. They’re all-arounders.”
Two other American men made it to the fourth round: No. 12 Tommy Paul, who is 27 years old, and No. 21 Ben Shelton, who's 22. A different quartet — Paul, eventual runner-up Taylor Fritz, Brandon Nakashima and Frances Tiafoe — was in that round at the U.S. Open in September, making these the first back-to-back Slam tournaments in 21 years with four U.S. men among the last 16 players at consecutive majors. (There are three American women in the fourth round in Melbourne.)
“On top of all the guys that are already at the top in the U.S., we have a lot more coming,” said Shelton, who like Paul already has been a Slam semifinalist. “It’s really starting to show itself.”
On Sunday, Paul became the first man from any country into this year's quarterfinals with a 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 victory over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain. Monday's schedule includes Michelsen against No. 8 Alexander de Minaur of Australia, Tien vs. Lorenzo Sonego of Italy, and Shelton against Gael Monfils of France.
“I'm not surprised. It's been something we've been talking about for a while,” said Tien’s coach, Eric Diaz. “We saw Alex breaking through, and we always anticipated that Learner would do this, too.”
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Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis