The championship helped Tien pocket a prize of 502,250 USD, making him the third No. 1 seed in the history of the Next Gen Finals, after Stefanos Tsitsipas (2018) and Carlos Alcaraz (2021).
12 months ago, Tien fell to Joao Fonseca (Brazil) in the 4-set final at Next Gen Finals 2024. However, since that defeat, the 20-year-old tennis player has been constantly improving himself.
The 2025 season saw Tien make great strides, with his first ATP Tour title at Metz, five wins against top 10 players and his highest ranking - 28th in the world.
By 2026, Tien aims to maintain his momentum, starting with the Australian Open next month. In Melbourne last season, he made a splash when he dropped Daniil Medvedev in the second round, before becoming the youngest player to reach the quarter-finals of the tournament since Rafael Nadal in 2005.
In the Next Gen Finals final, before the enthusiastic cheers at King Abdullah Sports City, Blockx entered the match confidently, handing the ball to score all 21 points for the first time in the opening set (and 24 times in the entire match).
However, that was still not enough to overcome Tien's calmness. The American tennis player took advantage of some left-hand errors of the opponent to win the first tie-break set, thereby taking control of the game.
Since then, the match has completely tilted to one side. Tien maintained stability and showed superiority in the final attacking matches, ending the final match after only 58 minutes.
The left-handed tennis player successfully saved two break-points when he passed the ball to the end of the match with a score of 3-2 and generally did not encounter many difficulties in his passing games.
Tien was born on December 2, 2005 in the US, and both parents are Vietnamese. His family is closely connected, with two children named after their parents' profession. Mr. Khuong is a lawyer in the real estate sector, and Ms. Huyen is a Math teacher.
