Learner Tien is one of the top candidates to snap the dominance of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner at the top of men’s tennis.
Following his breakthrough year in 2025, Tien, still just 20 years of age, has enjoyed a fairly promising first three months to his 2026 campaign.
The American made the quarterfinals of both the Australian Open and the Indian Wells Open, and reached the semifinals of the Delray Beach Open.
Who are you backing to complete the sunshine double?
Or do you think both Sabalenka and Sinner will win the Miami Open?
Despite an early exit in Miami, Tien is making good progress and is currently ranked 21st in the ATP world rankings.
However, there is still plenty of room for improvement, and in one aspect of his game in particular, says former doubles world number one Emilio Sanchez.
Emilio Sanchez discusses Learner Tien’s game
Asked in an episode of ‘Off Court with Greg‘ who can challenge Alcaraz and Sinner, Sanchez replied: “It’s all about level.
“So the level that they have is we can see with the results is a is higher. So, for example, let’s take a kid that I love, Tien, and Tien has a great game He has a lot of time, a lot of pace.
“He is beating most of the guys from, let’s say, from five on to 30 in the world. He’s beating them in difficult moments, difficult matches, but then he goes to play with Sinner and he gets reality, you know, because the other one does everything a bit better.
Who is the better hard court player – Carlos Alcaraz or Jannik Sinner?
“So Tien has the capacity and the personality and everything to be able to clean those areas to be able to arrive at the level, and also maybe he doesn’t need to arrive at that level.
“Maybe Sinner’s will also go down a bit. So they can mix on the way, or if not, he has to continue growing to arrive at that level.
“All the big servers have a bigger advantage. Tien’s serve is not that big yet. So he can improve that.”
How Learner Tien’s serving statistics rank on the ATP Tour
Tien’s world ranking is 21, but he is placed 56th on the ATP Tour in terms of serve rating, as per ATP statistics.
Serve rating takes into account the first serve percentage, the percentage of first and second serve points won, the percentage of service games won, average double faults per match and average aces per match.
Sinner, who ranks highly in all those categories, has the highest serve rating in men’s tennis, with a total of 298.7.
| Rank | Player | Serve Rating |
| 1 | Jannik Sinner | 298.7 |
| 2 | Taylor Fritz | 297.6 |
| 3 | Reilly Opelka | 297.5 |
| 4 | Alexander Zverev | 295.6 |
| 5 | Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard | 295.5 |
Tien’s serve rating is 267.0, having tallied the following totals in the past year:
- First serve percentage: 60.8%
- Percentage of first serve points won: 71.6%
- Percentage of second serve points won: 52.8%
- Percentage of service games won: 80.5%
- Average aces per match: 5.3
- Average double faults per match: 4.0
On return, however, Tien ranks 20th on the tour, with a rating of 143.0.
Receive exclusive tennis news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
