With A Wimbledon Win Over Jannik Sinner In His Back Pocket, Marton Fucsovics Upets Learner Tien

by Chloe Wellington-Hunt

Hungarian Marton Fucsovics reached the third round of Wimbledon after a three-hour battle – 6-7 (6) 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-3 – against the American Learner Tien. Tien – seeded No. 16 – barley survived a tough first set, with a deep game drought that he recovered and fending off Fucosvics’ set point in a long, angle-to-angle rally before finishing out the tiebreaker.

Despite making nearly 50 unforced errors, Fucsovic was able to dominate Tien in the final three sets, forcing the American to often stay at the baseline and neutralizing his backhand. He came out hot in the second set, while Tien looked colder and colder. Tien certainly did not seem to be at his best for the majority of the match. Even after his first set win, commentators appeared underwhelmed, discussing how Tien was able to pull out the tiebreak – and consequentially, the set – without playing close to his best tennis.

The biggest turning point was the changeover into the fourth set. Tien began to appear more and more listless, pausing to eat a slice of bread. At various moments in the last set, Tien seemed visibly distressed, reaching down to his stomach, moving inconsistently and without his usual gusto. At 5-3 in the fourth set, Fucsovics showed little nerves, finishing out the match with relative ease.

In his victorious moment, he collapsed on the grass, staying there to celebrate for a few moments. Fucsovics then came to his feet with a big, toothy smile, kissed his muscles and flexed to the crowd. Despite online trolls clowning Fucsovics, he is on the up-and-up. After over 15 years on tour, Fucsovics is finally seeing more major results, no pun intended. Even though he reached a career high of world No. 31 in March 2019, his latest ATP title was last summer at the Winston-Salem Open in North Carolina. Throughout his long career, Fucsovics has seen some of his best results on grass.

Over 15 years ago, Fucsovics won boys’ singles at Wimbledon, making his mark on the grass at 18-years-old. In 2017, he won the Ilkley Trophy, a Challenger event on grass. In 2021, Fucsovics even beat Jannik Sinner to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals, falling to Novak Djokovic. (Not exactly anyone’s preferred quarterfinals opponent.)

Last year at Wimbledon, Fucsovics proved his chops as a “Lucky Loser,” making it to the third round and fighting through back-to-back five-setters. All in all, Fucsovics isn’t new to success on the grass–age has made him wiser and more mentally tough, increasing his ball tolerance and patience, especially on return games.

Fucsovics will play another former juniors Wimbledon champion in the third round on Thursday: Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. (Fokina and Fucsovics both won boys’ singles in 2017 and 2010 respectively–so far today, four Wimbledon juniors champions have made it into the next round, including Jeļena Ostapenko and Claire Liu on the women’s side.) Fokina played a nearly flawless second round match against another Hungarian, Fábián Marozsán. In clean, decisive play, Fokina bageled Marozsán and only gave up three games the entire match.

Fokina, seeded No. 22 at Wimbledon, is certainly the favorite against Fucsovics. However, both players are 1-1 in showings, with Fokina winning the most recent matchup at the US Open (2022) in a five-setter. But underestimating Fucsovics would be a mistake too–after all, he plays his best tennis as the underdog