By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, October 8, 2025
Photo credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty
Court dimensions don’t change when Daniil Medvedev meets Learner Tien.
The degree of difficulty definitely deepens.
Tien transforms the tennis court to a torture chamber for the Russian.
But tonight Medvedev turned torment to triumph with one of his grittiest wins of the year.
Hobbled by cramps at the end of the second set, Medvedev overcame the pain and Tien’s baseline battering posting a 7-6(6), 6-7(1), 6-4 victory to battle into his 24th ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinal at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.
Nine days after Tien punished Medvedev building a 5-7, 7-5, 4-0 lead when the former No. 1 tapped out of the Beijing semifinals suffering apparent cramping it appeared the 29-year-old Russian might reach the physical break point again.
Gulping pickle juice on changeovers to ward off cramps, Medvedev was dragging his right leg and couldn’t run after a final Tien drive that ended the second-set tiebreaker.
In the third, Medvedev hit five of his 10 aces, won 18 of 20 first-serve points and showed tremendous grit defeating Tien for the first time in three meetings.
Afterward, Medvedev paid tribute to the 19-year-old Tien, who knocked him out of the Australian Open in January and rallied from a set and love-3 down today.
“The toughest part is that we played two times,” Medvedev said. “And in my opinion, he’s an unbelievable player.
“He doesn’t have a great serve and serve is so important in tennis. And without the serve, he’s 19 and he’s 30 in the world [Tien is No. 36] and only going up. And in my opinion, he’s such a good tennis player.”
Hall of Famer John McEnroe calls Medvedev “the chess master” for his cerebral style of play.
At times, teen Tien looked like he was one move ahead of Medvedev reading the Russian’s shots before he completed them and moving him laterally.
An exasperated Medvedev looked at coach Thomas Johansson and admitted “This guy is everywhere. I don’t know what to do?”
Johansson calmly replied “He reads the serve, Daniil, go body [serve].”
Medvedev said Tien’s skill reading the game and crafting unlikely angles is downright unsettling.
“He feels the game so well,” Medvedev said of Tien. “There are so many guys, right now it’s where tennis is going, that just hit strong and just hit every ball full power. They have amazing serves that makes them stay in the tennis match.
“He doesn’t have it and he manages to play so good without it. And so for me to beat him, I thought I was going to lose, I was cramping again and I’m just super happy to do it.”
In a two hour, 52-minute struggle of twists and turns, Tien hit a forehand winner then exploited a double fault breaking for a 4-3 second-set lead. Tien ran off five games in a row turning a 0-3 deficit into a 5-3 lead.
When the American served for the second set, Medvedev coaxed three errors breaking back for 5-all.
By then, Medvedev’s shirt and soaks were so thoroughly soaked with sweat he looked like a man who spent a half hour repeatedly driving through a car wash in a convertible.
Serving at 5-6, Tien barely looked fazed while Medvedev was dragging his right leg in apparent cramps and incurred a time violation. In the tiebreaker, Tien raced to a 6-1 lead before Medvedev double faulted away the second set.
Looking staggered, a defiant Medvedev was drained losing a 34-shot rally as Tien saved a break point in the third game. But the Russian was resolute.
Down 3-4, Medvedev blasted a couple of aces leveling at 4-all.
The spirited stand sparked the break in the ninth game.
Tien double faulted then saw Medvedev make a volley to face double break point. The left-hander missed a forehand as Medvedev broke for 5-4.
Though he started the final game with a double fault, Medvedev went to the drop shot twice in a row before lashing a gutsy forehand down the line for match point at 40-30. One final big serve ended it as the pair engaged in a respectful exchange at net.
Next up for Medvedev is Alex de Minaur with a semifinal spot on the line.
The seventh-seeded de Minaur saved all three break points he faced in a 7-5, 6-2 win over Nuno Borges earlier.
It was a milestone moment for de Minaur, who scored his 50th win of the year becoming the first Aussie man since former No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt in 2006 to score 50 wins in a season. De Minaur leads the ATP Tour in hard-court victories with 37 this season.
