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Daniil Medvedev has addressed his bruising exit from the Australian Open after losing 11 consecutive games in the middle of his fourth-round defeat to Learner Tien. The American also beat Medvedev here last year when he was a teenager qualifier ranked outside the top 100. That second-round encounter was a gruelling five-setter that finished at 3am. But this year's rematch was a much more one-sided affair as Tien, now back as the No. 25 seed, clinched an easy 6-4 6-0 6-3 victory.

The 20-year-old closed out the first set, bagelled Medvedev in the second, and then led 4-0 in the third before the three-time finalist here fought back. During Tien's mid-match hot streak, Medvedev looked flustered as he shrugged at his box, as if there was nothing he could do.

And the former world No. 1 has now explained how he managed to end Tien's run of 11 straight games and string together three in a row himself. "I was just trying to win one more. The one I won was not easy. I don't know if he had a breakpoint, but for sure, it was a couple of deuce points," Medvedev said.

"I mean, I was trying to figure out what can I do to kind of disturb his level that he had at this moment. I do want to say I guess I did something, because it became 4-3, and I even felt like, you know what, 4-3, it's small chance. Then, well, there was not a big chance finally.

"That's how I am no matter the score. I try to win one game at first, maybe one more after. The matches can turn a bit more probably in women's tennis, but in men's tennis as well we saw some crazy things. So I just try to say to myself, like, till the last point, try to fight. Then the last point was not for me this time."

Medvedev knew virtually nothing about Tien when they met in the second round here last year. But they played two more thrilling matches later in the season. The Russian retired in the third set of their Beijing clash while cramping so badly he could barely walk, and then beat Tien days later at the Shanghai Masters.

Their rivalry was dubbed one of the best of 2025 by the ATP Tour website, and Medvedev speaks highly of his young rival. But even he was surprised by the level the 20-year-old brought to the court on Sunday.

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"In a way, yes, because yeah, he played great. He played great, super-aggressive. Even when I was making good shots, he was making a better shot back. Didn't find many solutions today on the court, which is rare, and I didn't feel that many times in my life like this," the 2021 US Open champion explained.

"But, again, these things can happen. He had, like, unbelievable match where everything went in. It did happen to me as well a couple of times, and you even kind of feel sorry for your opponent, because, okay, I can go for tweener now and probably with closed eyes and make it. It happens. I should have, yeah, should have done maybe something a little bit better to try to disturb this rhythm of his."

Although he bowed out in the fourth round, Medvedev is still taking the positives from his time in Melbourne - and a positive few months on the tour. He added: "I think I should focus more in general. If we take last, like, maybe eight tournaments, let's say starting from US Open, so I don't know if it's, like, eight, nine, I played great.

"I beat a lot of players. I played great against some top players. In general, I was going far in the results. Even here, I won two very tough matches against opponents who played well, [Quentin] Halys and Fabian [Marozsan]. So I should try not to focus on this exact match, which was not good, because, I mean, he outplayed me, so that's not a good feeling. But I should focus more on the general picture and just continue working the way I did for the last tournaments."