19-year-old Learner Tien enjoyed an exceptional start to his 2025 campaign. The 2024 NextGen Finals runner-up defied expectations in Melbourne, reaching the 4th round courtesy of some intelligent, strategic all-court tennis (beating Medvedev in the process).
2025 ATP/ WTA Tour
Masters 1000/ WTA 1000
Italian Open
Foro Italico, Rome, Italy (Outdoor Clay)
Selected Round of 128 Matches- 7th May
Masters 1000
Learner Tien 0.8 vs Reily Opelka 0.98
He picked up yet another top-five scalp in Acapulco, beating Alex Zverev en route to an excellent quarterfinal finish. But the American teenager has fallen off a cliff since then, losing his last six consecutive tour-level matches. He actually lost in the first round of the Estoril Challenger last time out. I just think that he is going through one of those runs that is common amongst young players (especially those still negotiating the transition from Challenger to tour level). He is a building baseliner who looks to extend rallies, mapping out his opponent’s weaknesses as he goes along. His use of slice should make him a dangerous opponent on these surfaces.
American servebot Reily Opelka has had an up-and-down season. He started the year in incredible fashion, reaching his first final since 2022 at the Brisbane Invitational (where he was forced to withdraw in the final due to a back issue). He has struggled since returning from injury, winning just seven out of his last 15 matches. The American looked decent in Madrid, taking down Hikijata before a tight defeat to Karen Khachanov. He was well positioned at last week’s Challenger Aix-en-Provence, reaching the quarterfinals before injury forced him to retire. The huge-serving American is obviously not ideally suited to the more sluggish clay-court conditions. However, he produced one of the bets outings of his career in this very event, reaching the Rome semifinals back in 2021.
The Verdict: Opelka to win in straight sets at 2.25- This will be their first career meeting. Theoretically, Learner Tien’s game is far better suited to the attritional nature of these surfaces. However, he has never come up against the serving pyrotechnics of Opleka before (in competitive tennis anyway). I think that Opelka’s serve, regardless of the speed of the surface, could be too much for Tien to handle.
