Learner Tien played tennis almost as soon as he started walking. He was 5 when he competed in his first tournament, at the Racquet Club of Irvine, near his home. He was just short of 6, his father recalled, when he earned his first championship by winning three matches at an event in Upland. His trophy had a jack-o'-lantern on it because it was Halloween.
"He was ecstatic," said his father, Khuong Dan Tien, a real estate lawyer who taught tennis and described himself and his wife, Huyen, a former math teacher in the Anaheim school district, as hacks who play better in their minds than on the court.
Tennis came easily to the poised, young left-hander. Maybe too easily for him to recognize the extent of his gifts and where they could take him.
