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Daniil Medvedev has been in a somewhat unique position in tennis. He burst onto the scene during the tail-end of the Big Three era, reaching a maiden Grand Slam final at the 2019 US Open, only to lose to Rafael Nadal. Two years later, he beat Novak Djokovic in the US Open final to deny the Serbian superstar the calendar Grand Slam and to win his first Major title. In February 2022, Medvedev reached No. 1 for the first time, ending the Big Four’s – Djokovic, Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray – 18-year stronghold on the top spot. Now, he’s found himself competing in the ‘Sincaraz’ era, when Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have dominated.
Medvedev boasts wins over all the aforementioned players bar Federer, but he’s faced all of them multiple times. As a former world No. 1 and Grand Slam champion himself, the Russian knows what it’s like to reach the top of the game and to face the sport’s toughest opponents.
And there is one young star who has captured Medvedev’s attention, and who he has found just as difficult to beat as the likes of the Big Four, Alcaraz and Sinner – Learner Tien. Medvedev has a losing 1-3 record against the American, who has gone from an unknown teenager to a consistent top-20 player over the last couple of years.
At the beginning of 2025, Tien made his Grand Slam debut as a teenage qualifier ranked outside of the world’s top 120, and he stunned Medvedev in the second round. Tien needed four hours and 50 minutes to get the job done in a final-set, 10-point tiebreak at around 3am.
The American then rose up the rankings, and beat Medvedev via retirement later that year in Beijing. Days later, the Russian got his revenge when they met at the Shanghai Masters. And at the 2026 Australian Open, Tien – this time seeded 25th – blitzed Medvedev 6-4 6-0 6-3 in the fourth round.
So it’s no surprise that the current world No. 5 views Tien so highly. After getting his revenge over Tien at last year’s Shanghai Masters, Medvedev said: “I don't have the exact words, but in my opinion he's an unbelievable tennis player. When I say ‘tennis player’, I talk about everything together.
“He doesn't have serve, and serve is the most important in modern game. He doesn't have amazing serve, and without this he manages to play unbelievable at 19 years old.
“At 19 he has so much time to progress, and in my opinion has big future. You never know what happens, tennis is a tough sport, but I'm happy that I managed to win against him, because probably outside of the big guys like Sinner, Alcaraz, and the Big Three, maybe the toughest opponent I have faced.”
Medvedev and Tien even put their rivalry aside to join forces on the doubles court in Indian Wells this year, where they lost to cousins and top-100 stars Valentin Vacherot and Arthur Rinderknech.
Explaining how the unlikely partnership came about, the 20-year-old said: “His coach reached out to my coach. Originally, a couple guys had asked me to play doubles, and my coach actually didn’t really want me to play doubles. He just kind of wanted me to focus on singles.
“But when Daniil asked, it was more like – obviously we’re both singles players and we’re not really prioritising doubles, so it wasn’t going to be something that would really get in the way of singles, is what we thought. I thought it would be fun, so I said yes.”
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