Not the time, nor the place.
American tennis players competing in the Australian Open have consistently been asked loaded, anti-American questions. Monday night proved to be Learner Tien’s turn to answer a question about his country while sitting in a media center on the other side of the world, but he refreshingly had zero interest in doing so.
The 20-year-old from Irvine, Calif. advanced to the quarterfinals of the Aussie Open for the first time in his young career. After falling to Alexander Zverev in four sets in his quarterfinal match, one reporter saw that as an opportune time to ask Tien about being a child of Vietnamese immigrants and his heritage, but was sure to specifically mention President Donald Trump and ICE.
“It’s been a big day for both you and Iva Jovic,” the reporter began. “You really sort of feel the future for American tennis between you. It’s also interesting that you’re both second-gen immigrants to the US. Like in the context of everything that’s happening at the moment with Trump and ICE, like what does your heritage mean to you, and how important are immigrants to America and American sport today?”
After taking a lengthy pause and briefly putting his face in his hands, Tien chose not to get into a political conversation.
“Sorry, I don’t really want to talk about that right now,” he explained.
It is again worth mentioning that this question came just minutes after Tien had lost the biggest match of his career up to this point.
The reporter who asked Tien the question is now the second to ask an American player about life back home with President Trump a year into his second term and the ongoing situations unfolding with federal agents in Minneapolis.
Last week, it was allegedly Owen Lewis, a freelancer on site covering the tournament for The Athletic, who asked a handful of players from the U.S. to share their feelings about playing under the American flag with President Trump in office. It was an attempt by the reporter to insert his own political beliefs into the conversation and push them on American athletes at the Grand Slam.
Coco Gauff was the lone player to take the opportunity to call out her home country, claiming “it’s hard being a black woman” in the United States. Taylor Fritz, Jessica Pegula, Madison Keys, Amanda Anisimova, Ethan Quinn, and Tien were the other American players asked a similar version of the same anti-American question earlier in the tournament.
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