ATP Tour
Medvedev keen to keep perspective following Tien loss at Australian Open
Former World No. 1 now trails American 1-3 in pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series
January 25, 2026
Getty Images
Daniil Medvedev suffered a straight-sets defeat to Learner Tien on Sunday in Melbourne.
By Sam Jacot
When Daniil Medvedev stepped onto court on Sunday to face Learner Tien in the fourth round of the Australian Open, he was perfect on the season, holding an 8–0 record according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index.
A little more than 90 minutes later, however, the first blemish on his 2026 scorecard had been firmly marked. The former three-time finalist in Melbourne had few answers for Tien, who delivered a commanding 6-4, 6-0, 6-3 victory. Still, when reflecting on the defeat, the 29-year-old Medvedev was keen to keep perspective.
“I think I should focus more in general. If we take the past eight tournaments, starting from US Open, I played great,” Medvedev said. “I beat a lot of players. I played great against some top players. In general, I was going far in the results. Even here, I won two very tough matches against opponents who played well, [Quentin] Halys and Fabian [Marozsan].
“So I should try not to focus on this exact match, which was not good, because he outplayed me, so that’s not a good feeling. But I should focus more on the general picture and just continue working the way I did for the last tournaments. If I manage to play good, beat all the players I have beaten in all these tournaments, I can get to where I want. Of course, it’s unfortunate to finish a Grand Slam like this when I was feeling well and confident, but it is what it is.”
After a somewhat testing 18 months, Medvedev has looked closer to his best since the start of the Asian swing in September. The former No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, now coached by Thomas Johansson and Rohan Goetzke, has won recent titles in Almaty and Brisbane and earned Top 10 victories against Alexander Zverev and Alex de Minaur.
However, he has now lost three of his four Lexus ATP Head2Head meetings against the 20-year-old Tien, who also defeated Medvedev in Melbourne last year. Despite his frustrations with Sunday’s match, Medvedev was full of praise for the reigning Next Gen ATP Finals champion.
“He played great, super-aggressive. Even when I was making good shots, he was making a better shot back,” Medvedev said. “I didn’t find many solutions today on the court, which is rare, and I didn’t feel that many times in my life like this.
“But, again, these things can happen. He had an unbelievable match where everything went in. It did happen to me as well a couple of times, and you even kind of feel sorry for your opponent, because, okay, I can go for tweener now and probably with closed eyes and make it. It happens. I should have done maybe something a little bit better to try to disturb this rhythm of his.”
Medvedev is next scheduled to play at the ATP 500 event in Rotterdam, where he won the title in 2023.
