French Open 2025 live updates: Day 3 latest with Zverev, Coco Gauff on court; Novak Djokovic to come
American teenager Learner Tien has a daunting draw against Alexander Zverev. Fortunately, Tien knows exactly how to beat him.
The 19-year-old shocked Zverev 6-3, 6-4 at this year’s Mexican Open in Acapulco, by weaving Zverev into patterns of play that the German didn’t enjoy.
Tien is left-handed; Zverev is right-handed. Ordinarily, that leads to the right-hander hitting their forehand into the left-hander’s backhand, and the left-hander attempting to do the same thing back because the backhand is usually the weaker shot.
But Zverev’s forehand is less reliable than his backhand, tending to break down under sustained pressure.
In Acapulco, Tien hit ball after ball in that direction, drawing errors from Zverev’s racket time and again.
The problem for Tien is that on clay, his shots sit more than they skid. It’s harder to do damage and Zverev is more able to blunt the one-way attack.
The German took the first set 6-3, with the second just getting underway.
