Serena Williams' ex-coach Rennae Stubbs makes her feelings known on Daniil Medvedev's shock loss to Learner Tien in Australian Open 2R

Daniil Medvedev suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of young American talent Learner Tien in the second round of the 2025 Australian Open. However, Serena Williams' ex-coach Rennae Stubbs was all-praise for both players who battled it out in a 5-set marathon that ran for four hours and 49 minutes.

Stubbs took to X to enthuse over the match that went late into the night and concluded at 2:55 am in Melbourne. While she congratulated Tien for coming out on top of an "amazing match", Stubbs also expressed her admiration for Medvedev's "gutsy" performance.

"Still getting over the match between Tien & Meddy. I stayed up till 3am watching it & i can’t believe the effort from both men! Incredible match & boy oh boy can Tien play! My god! Meddy whatever u think of him, (i [heart emoji] him) was also so gutsy. Just an amazing match from a teen."

Daniil Medvedev is no stranger to taking away five-setters at the Australian Open. Last year, the World No. 5 won three 5-setters en route to the finals where he lost to the eventual champion Jannik Sinner, also in a 5-set battle.

This year, the fifth seed won 6-2, 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 in his opening round against Kasidit Samrej. However, things did not go as planned for Medvedev when he came up against the 2024 Next Gen ATP Finals runner-up Learner Tien.

Tien was up to two sets when Medvedev defended a match point to take the third set. The Russian dominated the fourth set before bowing down to a resilient Tiem in the decider. The final scoreline read 6-3, 7-6, 6-7, 1-6, 7-6 in Tien's favor.

Learner Tien stuns Daniil Medvedev, becomes second-youngest American to reach R3 at Australian Open

Daniil Medvedev at the 2025 Australian Open. Image: Getty

19-year-old Learner Tien sunk Daniil Medvedev to become the second-youngest American man to reach the third round of the Australian Open. Previously, a then 18-year-old Pete Sampras accomplished the feat in 1990. Sampras eventually lost to Yannick Noah in the fourth round that year.

In an on-court interview after the win, Tien was informed that he had played the first fifth-set tie-break of the 2025 Australian Open. He reacted:

"I was definitely hoping it wouldn't go to a fifth-set breaker, but I'm just happy to get a win. I know I made it a lot harder than maybe it could have been."

He also reflected on the third set and added:

Losing the third was tough after playing for that long and having a match point. I didn't even get to touch the ball I don't think, it was an ace. So it was a little disappointing to see a fourth [set] after fighting back from a break down in the third."

Tien will next face Corentin Moutet in the third round of the Melbourne Major on Saturday, January 18.