#NextGenATP American Learner Tien earned his third Top 10 win on Wednesday at the Mallorca Championships presented by ecotrans Group, where he downed countryman and top seed Ben Shelton 6-4, 7-6(2) to reach the quarter-finals.
The 19-year-old committed 16 fewer unforced errors than Shelton (22-38) and rallied from 1-4 in the second set to eventually triumph after one hour and 41 minutes in the pair’s first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting.
"I thought I returned really well today," Tien said. "I felt it was tough to serve today with the wind. I felt my toss moved around a lot but I thought I returned really, really well and gave myself a lot of looks on return games."
Full power đź’Ş
— ATP Tour (@atptour) June 25, 2025
Tien takes out Shelton 6-4 7-6 in Mallorca!@MallorcaChamps | #MallorcaChampionships pic.twitter.com/iUovLAl8rK
Tien, who defeated Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev earlier this year, is the youngest player to defeat a Top-10 star on grass since Felix Auger-Aliassime beat Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Queen’s Club in 2019. Into his third tour-level quarter-final, Tien will next meet Corentin Moutet at the ATP 250 grass-court event.
The dynamic Frenchman downed Germany’s Daniel Altmaier 7-6(3), 7-6(3) to advance to his first quarter-final of the season. Last week, Moutet upset Taylor Fritz at the HSBC Championships in London.
In other action, Tien’s good friend Alex Michelsen defeated Brandon Holt 6-4, 6-4. Michelsen, who fell to Tien in the semi-finals at the 2024 Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF, takes on Roberto Bautista Agut in the last eight in Mallorca. The Spaniard, a semi-finalist at The Queen's Club last week, defeated Bernard Tomic 6-3, 6-3.
