The American teenager who pulled off a tennis upset for the ages

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. During the fourth set of his marathon Australian Open match against one of the world’s top tennis players, 19-year-old Learner Tien had just one thing on his mind. He desperately needed a bathroom break.

So despite being up by two sets to one in the biggest outing of his young career, Tien took a calculated risk. He figured that if he tanked the rest of a set that was already running away from him—but still snatched one game—then his life would vastly improve. Not only could Tien take his nature break, he’d also serve first in the winner-takes-all fifth.

The miraculous part is that Tien, a qualifier ranked No. 121 in the world, calculated right. Just before 3 a.m.

in Melbourne, the teenage lefty from Irvine, Calif. closed out a 4-hour, 49-minute epic to take down the world’s fifth-ranked player, Daniil Medvedev, 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-7(8), 1-6, 7-6(7). “I have no idea what time it is," Tien said.

“I’m sure it’s really late." Which is unusual for him, since Tien has been making a name for himself by doing things earlier than most. His victory against Medvedev on Thursday made him the youngest American man to reach the third round at a Grand Slam tournament since Donald Young at the 2007 U.S. Open.

Tien is also the first American teenager to beat a top-five player at a major since Pete Sampras in 1990. Then again, Tien has always been in a hurry. When he was first recruited to play tennis at the University of Southern California, he was on the verge of graduating high school—and just 15 years old.