Tien, Fearnley continue red-hot form with Challenger titles
pAmerican teen a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/learner-tien/t0ha/overview'Learner Tien/a and Briton a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jacob-fearnley/f0by/overview'Jacob Fearnley/a are two of the most dominant players on the ATP Challenger Tour right now./p
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The #NextGenATP Tien added his name to elite company in American tennis history Sunday when he won his second Challenger title at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/las-vegas/7345/2024/results'Las Vegas Tennis Open/a. Fearnley, 23, lifted his third trophy in just his fourth appearance at that level this year./p
pTien, seeded third, overcame a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/tristan-boyer/b0ej/overview'Tristan Boyer/a 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 in the Las Vegas Challenger final, during which Tien won 65 per cent of his second-serve return points, compared to Boyerrsquo;s 37 per cent./p
pldquo;I put a lot more importance on return points. I know how much pressure winning a couple points in someonersquo;s service games can make them feel,rdquo; Tien told commentator Bryan Fenley./p
pBy triumphing on the Las Vegas hard courts, Tien became the fifth-youngest American to win multiple Challenger titles, only behind a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/taylor-fritz/fb98/overview'Taylor Fritz/a, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/andy-roddick/r485/overview'Andy Roddick/a, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/frances-tiafoe/td51/overview'Frances Tiafoe/a, and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/sam-querrey/q927/overview'Sam Querrey/a./p
pstrongYoungest Americans To Win A Second Challenger Title/strong/p
table
tbody
tr
td style="text-align: left;"strongPlayer/strong/td
td style="text-align: left;"strongAge/strong/td
td style="text-align: left;"strongSecond Challenger Title/strong/td
/tr
tr
td style="text-align: left;"a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/taylor-fritz/fb98/overview'Taylor Fritz/a/td
td style="text-align: left;"17 years, 11 months/td
td style="text-align: left;"2015 Fairfield/td
/tr
tr
td style="text-align: left;"a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/andy-roddick/r485/overview'Andy Roddick/a/td
td style="text-align: left;"18 years, two months/td
td style="text-align: left;"2000 Burbank/td
/tr
tr
td style="text-align: left;"a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/frances-tiafoe/td51/overview'Frances Tiafoe/a/td
td style="text-align: left;"18 years, eight months/td
td style="text-align: left;"2016 Stockton/td
/tr
tr
td style="text-align: left;"a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/sam-querrey/q927/overview'Sam Querrey/a/td
td style="text-align: left;"18 years, nine months, two days/td
td style="text-align: left;"2006 Winnetka/td
/tr
tr
td style="text-align: left;"stronga href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/learner-tien/t0ha/overview'Learner Tien/a/strong/td
td style="text-align: left;"strong18 years, nine months, 13 days/strong/td
td style="text-align: left;"strong2024 Las Vegasbr /
/strong/td
/tr
/tbody
/table
pldquo;Irsquo;m happy I was able to get through this week," Tien said. "Tougher conditions here with the altitude and wind. Some moments I wasnrsquo;t playing as well as I wanted to, but Irsquo;m happy I was able to problem solve and make it through the week.rdquo;/p
p
In May, Tien was No. 432 in the PIF ATP Rankings, but the 18-year-old has since propelled to a career-high No. 151. The teenager claimed his maiden Challenger title in Bloomfield Hills in June amidst his 28-match winning streak mdash; including four ITF World Tennis Tour titles mdash; across all levels.
/p
p
Tien is seventh in the PIF ATP Live Race To Jeddah. He is aiming for his maiden trip to the 20-and-under a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/next-gen-atp-finals/7696/overview'Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF/a, which runs from 18-22 December./p
p
p
The Briton Fearnley beat three of the Top 4 seeds at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/rennes/3503/2024/results'Open Blot Rennes/a, including fourth seed and home favourite a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/quentin-halys/hb64/overview'Quentin Halys/a in the final, which Fearnley won 0-6, 7-6(5), 6-3 after saving 12 of the 15 break points he faced, according to Infosys ATP Stats./p
p
Fearnley completed his standout five-year collegiate career at Texas Christian University this year and has since made a rapid rise on the ATP Challenger Tour, boasting an 18-1 season record at that level. Up to a career-high No. 129 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Fearnley won his first major main-draw match at a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a, where he then pushed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/novak-djokovic/d643/overview'Novak Djokovic/a to four sets in the second round./p
blockquote class="twitter-tweet"
p lang="en" dir="ltr"Trophy time in Rennes ????a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ATPChallenger?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#ATPChallenger/a | a href="https://twitter.com/jakefearnley01?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@jakefearnley01/a | a href="https://twitter.com/OpenBlotRennes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@OpenBlotRennes/a a href="https://t.co/27GrrhAYL5"pic.twitter.com/27GrrhAYL5/a/p
mdash; ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) a href="https://twitter.com/ATPChallenger/status/1835431936522862854?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"September 15, 2024/a/blockquote
script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"/script
p
In other Challenger action,nbsp;a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/vit-kopriva/ki82/overview'Vit Kopriva/a went one step further than last yearrsquo;s runner-up finish at the Invest In Szczecin Open to claim his fourth title. The Czech avenged last year's final loss against a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/federico-coria/ce77/overview'Federico Coria/a in dramatic fashion, fending off five match points in the semi-finals to survive the Argentine. Kopriva raced past a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/andrea-pellegrino/ph64/overview'Andrea Pellegrino/a 7-5, 6-2 in the final./p
p"The whole week was very special. Very tough for me coming back after last year's final," Kopriva said. "I'm really happy for the whole week. Today's final was up and down. It was windy. We both struggled a little bit at the beginning, losing service games. The first set was the deciding one and luckily I made it."nbsp;/p
pimg src="/-/media/images/news/2024/09/17/17/15/kopriva-szczecinch-2024.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/vit-kopriva/ki82/overview'Vit Kopriva/a wins the Szczecin Challenger." /br/emsupa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/vit-kopriva/ki82/overview'Vit Kopriva/a wins the Challenger 125 event in Szczecin, Poland. Credit: Invest In Szczecin Open/sup/em/p
p
a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/guy-den-ouden/d0h9/overview'Guy Den Ouden/a did not drop a set all week at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/dobrich/2043/2024/results'IZIDA Cup/a in Dobrich, Bulgaria, where the 22-year-old beat a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jelle-sels/so20/overview'Jelle Sels/a 6-2, 6-3 in the final. Following the Dutchman's maiden Challenger title, Den Ouden is up to a career-high No. 277 in the PIF ATP Rankings./p
pa href="https://www.atptour.com/en/players/christopher-o'connell/o483/overview"Christopher Orsquo;Connell/anbsp;won his sixth Challenger title and first of this season at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/guangzhou/2937/2024/results'Guangzhou Huangpu International Tennis Open/a. The 30-year-old Australian, who has won a trophy on Asian hard courts each of the past three seasons, downed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/sho-shimabukuro/sy67/overview'Sho Shimabukuro/a 1-6, 7-5, 7-6(5) in the championship match. Orsquo;Connell was competing in his first tournament since reaching the third round of the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a and falling to World No. 1 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jannik-sinner/s0ag/overview'Jannik Sinner/a./p
pimg src="/-/media/images/news/2024/09/17/17/00/oconnell-guangzhouch-2024.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/christopher-oconnell/o483/overview'Christopher O'Connell/a in action at the Guangzhou Challenger." /br /
emsupa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/christopher-oconnell/o483/overview'Christopher O'Connell/a in action at the Guangzhou Challenger. Credit: a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/guangzhou/2937/2024/results'Guangzhou Huangpu International Tennis Open/a/sup/em/p
p[NEWSLETTER FORM]/p