‘If only he could serve…’
“Think about if he had a serve….”
These are the kinds of comments that accompanied student Tien in the early stages of his professional tennis career. And they are not dishonest either. The 20-year-old will be the first to admit that his serve is one of the weak points of his game.
Well, it keeps getting better. And it’s actually getting better in a hurry.
Tien rolled a whopping 20 aces during his 6-4, 6-7(4), 7-6(5) victory over Miomir Kecmanovic in the second round of the Delray Beach Open on Thursday afternoon. That’s right. Twenty. That’s a borderline serve-bot number for a best-of-three match.
Ironically, Tien lost in a third-set tiebreak in the second round against Delray Beach in 2025. In that match, the southpaw recorded just three aces as he lost to Matteo Arnaldi 7-6(4), 4-6, 7-6(1). By comparison, Arnaldi threw 24 aces. Needless to say, it’s hard to win tennis matches if you lose the aces battle at the age of 21.
Ten knew he had to work on that shot, and that’s exactly what he did.
“I definitely spent a lot more time on it,” the world number 23 explained after beating Kecmanovic. “It’s still a work in progress; I don’t think it’s a complete product. But I see the improvement in certain matches and it’s very motivating.”
Thursday’s performance did not come entirely out of nowhere. Ten scored as many aces as Marin Cilic with a big helping in their first-round match in Dallas last week (nine apiece). During his recent quarterfinal match at the Australian Open, Tien twice reached double figures in aces, including 21 against Marcos Giron in the first round.
Additionally, the California native won a whopping 85 percent of his first serve points against Kecmanovic (45 of 55). Yes, a lot of that has to do with aces. But a big part of that is getting the points with serve-plus-one tactics and taking control of rallies early with well-placed serves.
And when Ten has the upper hand in a rally, he rarely lets it go. His base game has never been a question and never will be. That part of his game is already world class. If the service even comes close to keeping up the bargain, Tien’s potential is limitless.
The standout part of his post-match interview on Thursday is when he said his service improvements are “motivating.” Not ‘satisfactory’ or anything like that. He signals progress, but knows that it can – and must – be even better.
And if that happens, the rest of the tour better pay attention.
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