SEPT 25 - 27, 2026 | LONDON
Making his Team World debut on Saturday at The O2 in London, Learner Tien leveled the Laver Cup at 3-3 with a dazzling display of shotmaking against Team Europe’s Flavio Cobolli, winning, 6-3, 2-6, 10-7, in one hour and 35 minutes.
The key, said the 20-year-old American, was a quick reset before the Laver Breaker.
“In general, I can reset pretty well mentally. I think that’s a big strength of mine,” said Tien, who’s on the cusp of the Top 10 in the PIF ATP Rankings at No. 13.
“In this format, it doesn’t matter what the score is. Everyone still has a chance. The match can turn on a dime. Being able to put the second set behind me was really big today.”
Cobolli, the Roland Garros runner-up in June, was in trouble early on against the southpaw Tien, broken to open the match and soon trailing 4-0. It wasn’t until the 19-minute mark that the Italian finally got on the scoreboard.
With such luminaries as Thierry Henry, Sir Ian McKellen, Jeff Goldblum and Roger Federer looking on, Cobolli managed to reclaim one of those breaks for 2-4, punctuated by a down-the-line forehand winner. But serving to stay in the stanza at 3-5, 15-40, he surrendered the set when Tien dropped in an unreachable backhand volley.
Cobolli asserted himself in the second set with a break of his own for 2-1 and would eventually force the 10-point tiebreak. It was the third of four singles matches over Days 1-2 to go the distance. But Tien would stand steady from the baseline, in self-described “lockdown mode”, lifted all along by the courtside presence of Team World Captain Andre Agassi.
“It’s amazing. He’s gave me more energy,” said Tien, who saved four of seven break points against the seventh-ranked Cobolli. “It’s great to have a voice on the sidelines always encouraging you.”
Tien, in the midst of a breakout campaign that has seen him reach his first career Grand Slam and ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinals at the Australian Open and BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, capped the match by winning a 34-shot rally.
