Tien Wins Metz Battle Of Youth Versus Experience Over Echargui

Learner Tien, Open Moselle
Learner Tien (photo: Chryslène Caillaud)

METZ/WASHINGTON, November 5, 2025 (by Michael Dickens)

With six second-round singles matches on Wednesday’s order of play at the ATP 250 Moselle Open in northeastern France – including four on Court Central inside Les Arenes de Metz – by the end of the day, the quarterfinal line up came into clear focus.

The opening match of the day on Court Central, between lefty Learner Tien of the United States and Tunisian lucky loser Moez Echargui proved to be an intriguing battle pitting youth versus experience. This time, Tien’s youthful energy prevailed as he defeated the 32-year-old Tunisian, 7-6 (3), 6-3, in one hour and 36 minutes to advance to his sixth ATP tour quarterfinal. He became just the third teenager to reach the Metz last eight this decade after Holger Rune (2021-22) and Luca Van Assche (2023).

The 19-year-old American improved to 29-23 this season – 7-1 against players ranked outside the Top 100 on tour-level in 2025 – with his victory over the 140th-ranked Echargui, who was making his ATP Tour debut with a career-high ranking after being inserted into the main draw as a lucky loser replacing No. 2 seed Daniel Medvedev. The World No. 12 Medvedev withdrew earlier this week with an injury and it provided Echargui with an opportunity to compete against his first Top-50 opponent.

By the conclusion, Tien proved to be the steadier competitor overall despite making 31 unforced errors and letting a 4-2 break lead in the opening set slip by. He dropped just five first-serve points (winning 32 of 37, 86 percent), saved three of four break points and pressured Echargui throughout the match by achieving 11 break-point chances. Tien converted two of them, the second one in the fourth game of the second set, which enabled him to push ahead 3-1. From there, last year’s 2024 Next Gen ATP Finals runner-up never looked back. 

Tien finished the second-round match with 27 winners – including 14 from his forehand side – and outpointed his opponent 79-66. He benefited from 25 unforced errors by Echargui.

“I got an early break in the first [set] and, at times, I was just thinking I was going to ride it out,” Tien said during his on-court interview. “He played a good game at 5-4 and I played a couple of loose points and, you know, we were in a [tie]breaker. I’m happy I was able to regain my focus and win it in straights.”

Echargui, whose bid to become the second Tunisian man to reach a tour-level quarterfinal in the Open Era after Malek Jaziri in 2019 at Estoril came up short in Metz, became the third-oldest man to play in his first ATP Tour match (not counting Davis Cup or the Olympic Games) since the ATP Tour was established in 1990. While he didn’t win, he showed some good signs of promise by hitting 22 winners against Tien.

In all competitions this season, the native of La Marsa, a coastal city in northeastern Tunisia, has played in a whopping 91 matches, compiling a win-loss record of 68-23. He’s won three ATP Challenger Tour titles – at Porto, Hersonissos and Saint-Tropez – as well as six titles on ITF World Tennis Tour circuit.

• Next, Tien will face No. 63 Matteo Berrettini of Italy, who downed No. 87 Aleksandar Vukic of Australia, 7-6 (5), 6-3, in one hour and 21 minutes on Court Central Wednesday evening. It’s the fifth hard-court quarterfinal this season that Berrettini has reached. Against Vukic, he did it in back of 15 service aces, won 88 percent (37 of 42) of his first-serve points and converted two of five break points. He outscored Vukic 70-52. Berrettini is the fourth Italian after Andreas Seppi (2005, 2012), Lorenzo Sonego (2022-23, 2025) and Fabio Fognini (2023) to reach the last eight at Metz.

• No. 46 Daniel Altmaier of Germany advanced to his 11th career tour-level quarterfinal – third of this season and all of them indoors – after French wild card Hugo Gaston retired with an injury following the second set. Although the 98th-ranked Gaston won the opening set 6-4, Altmaier stormed back and took the second set 6-0. During the second set, Gaston needed medical attention for his ankle and it proved his undoing. The last couple of games, Gaston had very little mobility and was unable to chase after balls hit into the corners.

The match ended after an hour of 14 minutes of play with Altmaier ahead on points 53-44. In the quarterfinals, Altmaier will play 42nd-ranked Lorenzo Sonego of Italy, who won the 2022 Metz title.

• French qualifier Clement Tabur, ranked 243rd, rallied to beat No. 102 Alexander Blockx of Belgium, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (6), 7-6 (6), in two hours and 51 minutes on Court 1. Playing in just his second ATP Tour main draw this week after losing in the first round at Roland-Garros, Tabur saved four of five break points from the Belgian Next Gen ATP hopeful Blockx and outpointed him 125-119. 

Tabur saved a match point, down 5-6 during the second-set tie-break, then beat Blockx on his fifth match-point opportunity. It was Tabur’s second three-set win this week in Metz.

• Next, Tabur will face 222nd-ranked lucky loser Vitalik Sachko of Ukraine, whom he beat in three sets in the final round of qualifying earlier this week. The 28-year-old Ukrainian No. 1 upset World No. 13 and third seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5, in two hours and eight minutes to earn the biggest win of his career and to reach his first ATP Tour quarterfinal. He’s the first Ukrainian man to reach an ATP Tour quarterfinal since Sergiy Stakhovsky in 2019 at Marseille.

Sachko hit 30 winners – 18 of them from his forehand side – to overcome 32 unforced errors. He saved five of six break points and broke Bublik twice in four tries. Bublik outpointed Sachko 100-93, but it wasn’t enough. The loss will prevent Bublik from breaking into the ATP Top 10 for the first time next week.

After going on a 30-8 run since Roland-Garros, including title wins in Halle, Gstaad, Kitzbühel and Hangzhou, Bublik was denied a ninth tour-level quarterfinal berth this season by Sachko.

“The match was very tight from the beginning until the end,” Sachko admitted during his on-court interview. “I wasn’t thinking how it was going to end. I was just focusing on my game, trying to play my best. It went over my expectations.

“This was one of my best matches of my career. I’m very happy about it. The only thing I was expecting from Sascha was to play more underarm serves. I was ready for them every point but he didn’t do it today.”

Around Les Arenes de Metz

• In a second-round singles match-up of French lucky losers, No. 156 Kyrian Jacquet defeated 204th-ranked Dan Added, 6-0, 6-2, in 54 minutes on Court 1. In their first tour-level meeting, Jacquet dropped just four points on his first serve, faced no break points and broke Added five times in 10 opportunities. He outpointed his opponent 56-30 to advance to Thursday’s quarterfinal round against 27th-ranked and No. 7 seed Cameron Norrie of Great Britain.

• As the quarterfinal round of doubles got underway on Wednesday, there were just two seeded teams remaining in the draw: No. 2 Sander Arends of the Netherlands and Luke Johnson of Great Britain, and No. 3 seeds Guido Andreozzi of Argentina and Manuel Guinard of France.

Andreozzi and Guinard advanced to the semifinals with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Constantin Frantzen of Germany and Robin Haase of the Netherlands in 63 minutes on Court 1. The Argentine/French duo won 78 percent (40 of 51) of their service points and outpointed their opponents 60-47.

Also, Czechia’s Petr Nouza and Patrik Rikl reached the semifinals with their 7-6 (2), 7-5 win over Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli and Arjun Kadhe of India in an hour and 23 minutes on Court Central. The Czech pair combined for 15 aces and saved both break points they faced. Nouza and Rikl outpointed the Indian duo 75-58.

In an all-French match-up on Court 1, Quentin Halys and Pierre-Hugues Herbert advanced to the semifinals with a 6-2, 7-5 win over wild cards Dan Added and Tom Paris. Halys and Herbert saved nine of 10 break points and converted four of seven break-point chances. They outpointed their opponents 66-52.

Meanwhile, Arends and Johnson will play their quarterfinal-round match against Rafael Matos and Marcelo Melo of Brazil on Thursday.

Wednesday’s Moselle Open results

Thursday’s Moselle Open order of play

By the numbers

At the start of second-round play Wednesday, there were just four of the 14 French players remaining in the singles draw: a wild card (Hugo Gaston), two lucky losers (Dan Added and Kyrian Jacquet) and a qualifier (Clement Tabur). 

On Tuesday, all three French players who were in action – No. 6 seed Arthur Rinderknech, No. 8 seed Corentin Moutet and Arthur Cazaux – went down to defeat. 

By the end of the day Wednesday, only Jacquet and Tabur had advanced to the quarterfinals.

“Quotable …”

“It’s always a battle, he’s a very talented player. I had to fight hard to get myself into the match and I had to pick some battles with myself.”

“I just told myself I wanted to be here and I wanted to be playing.”

– No. 7 seed Cameron Norrie of Great Britain, during his on-court interview early Wednesday, after defeating Arthur Cazaux of France in three sets to advance to back-to-back quarterfinals at Metz.

 

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