Tien eyes future beyond baseline as Madrid debut beckons

World number 21 Learner Tien is only 20, yet the American is already thinking about the day the applause fades and his tennis rackets are packed away.

The 2025 Next Gen ATP champion believes tennis should be a springboard rather than a safety net as he prepares to make his Madrid Open debut on Saturday.

Tien acknowledged that there is a growing trend of professional athletes broadening their horizons beyond their primary careers, a shift in thinking the 20-year-old credits to increased financial awareness and strong advisory teams around modern athletes.

"I think everyone recognises that tennis doesn't last forever, and you want to use tennis to set yourself up for the rest of your life," Tien told Reuters in Madrid.

"A lot of tennis players, I'd say, don't go to college, don't finish their education - I think that there's a balance to it. I think that you shouldn't be skipping practice trying to research how to handle your money.

"But I think it's baby steps. It's important just to kind of get the ball rolling and start to understand these things... I would definitely say there's a pretty conscious effort to learn about it these days."

While the tennis world waits for the first American man to win a Grand Slam since Andy Roddick at the 2003 US Open, Tien appears unfazed by expectation.

The Southern Californian, who has climbed swiftly up the rankings, said cautionary tales from sport have sharpened his focus.

"You hear these stories of these successful athletes kind of, experimenting, losing some of their money, and not really being able to support themselves financially after their careers are over," he said.

"So I think it's great to have education resources and it's great that they are available to especially the younger players… Basically, you don't want to be the next story people tell."

That line of thinking has helped make financial education one of the pillars of a new global programme launched this week by the ATP and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) to support rising talent seeking to break onto the ATP Tour.

ATP CEO Eno Polo said governing bodies had a duty to act.

"That awareness is also a responsibility of organisations, sports organisations in all sports, whether it's in football or cycling or athletics or tennis, to help young players create that awareness," Polo told Reuters.

"We don't want them skipping practice to take a course or study an MBA, not at the age of 20, but one of the things that keep me up at night is how much talent are we losing along the way because they didn't have the resources or they weren't surrounded with the right courses or motivation to get out there."