Learner Tien advanced to the Roland Garros second round on Tuesday following a four-set victory over Cristian Garin.
Tien proved too strong for the former Wimbledon quarter-finalist, winning 6-0, 2-6, 6-0, 6-2 in the French capital.
The American has struggled on clay courts in the past, something he admitted after capturing his first clay-court title at the Geneva Open.
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However, as demonstrated by his triumph in Geneva, Tien appears to have found his footing on the surface.
Tien’s recent performances led John McEnroe to highlight the youngster as the most likely American man to win Roland Garros this year, alongside Tommy Paul.
Tien has now responded to McEnroe’s recent praise.
Learner Tien says his game ‘can suit the clay’ in response to John McEnroe’s comments
After defeating Garin, one reporter asked Tien a pertinent question during the American’s post-match press conference in Paris.
“McEnroe said you were the American who is best suited to go really, really far on clay,” the reporter said. “Not necessarily this year, but ultimately that your game really suited it.
“I was wondering if you had any reaction to that and if you do feel like your game suits it in any way.”
Tien responded by saying: “I would never go out and say I have the best shot of anybody, because the US has a great crop of young guys who are really making big strides, especially on the clay.
“The results are obviously going in the right direction for Americans on clay.
“Personally, I think that I do have a game that can suit the clay. Obviously it’s not something that I grew up playing on, but with more time, and I just think more experience on the clay, I do think that I can have success on this surface.
“But I think for a lot of Americans that is the case.
“A lot of us just haven’t really been exposed to the surface and just the more we get on, the more matches we play, just helps a lot.”
Tien was then asked to identify the area of his game that suits the clay-court surface.
“In general, I think I construct points well, which is pretty big on this surface,” the 20-year-old American remarked.
“I think that my movement is definitely getting better. I think just patience, shot tolerance, willing to go out there and work these points, and not really bail out of these points.
“Sometimes you just take the medicine and play these long rallies. That’s something that I’m willing to do.
“So I definitely feel that in the future, with more time, more experience, that I can definitely have some success on this surface.”
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After defeating Garin, Tien will play Argentine Facundo Diaz Acosta in the Roland Garros second round.
If Tien advances past the Argentine, he will play 10th seed Flavio Cobolli or Yibing Wu in the third round.
How did Learner Tien perform at the 2025 French Open?
By beating Garin on Tuesday, Tien has already bettered his performance from 2025.
Last year, the youngster was defeated in the first round by third seed Alexander Zverev, 3-6, 3-6, 4-6.
Zverev, who had lost to Tien three months earlier in Mexico, recognised his opponent’s talent after their contest.
“He beat a lot of great opponents in the beginning of the year,” Zverev said, as per rolandgarros.com. “He beat Medvedev at the Australian Open, he beat me in Acapulco.
“He’s very young, he’s very talented and obviously he’s going to climb up the rankings, and he’s still going to improve.
“It helped that I played him once before, and maybe it helped that I lost to him also. I kind of knew what to expect. I’m happy with today’s performance all around.”
Zverev went on to reach the quarter-finals in Paris before losing to Novak Djokovic in four sets.
