In the short program, Ten was credited with a triple lutz–triple toe loop combination and received a level 4 on his change foot combination spin. In the free skate, Ten placed 19th after falling twice, once on a triple axel attempt, and the second time on his triple lutz. However, he was credited with rotating the triple axel. He placed 16th overall. Because of his placement at the World Junior Championships, Ten earned Kazakhstan the right to send one men's entry to every JGP event for the following season. Ten began his season competing in the 2008–09 JGP. At his first event in Courchevel, France, he placed 5th in the short program and in the free skate to place 4th overall, placing 7.82 behind bronze medalist Florent Amodio. In his free skate, Ten landed a clean triple axel. By placing 4th in his first event, Ten entered into contention to potentially qualify for the Junior Grand Prix Final. A month later, Ten competed at his second JGP event, the event in Gomel, Belarus. In the short program, Ten landed four triples, including a triple axel, to win the short program by a 5.19 point margin of victory over second-place finisher Stanislav Kovalev. In the free skate, Ten landed six triple jumps to place 2nd in that segment of the competition by 3.88 points behind Yang Chao. Ten won the competition by 4.60 total points ahead of silver medalist Yang. By winning this competition, Ten simultaneously became the first skater from Kazakhstan to medal at an ISU competition and to win an ISU competition. Following the eighth and final Junior Grand Prix event, Ten became the first skater from Kazakhstan to qualify for the ISU Junior Grand Prix Final, for which he was the seventh qualifier. Ten mentioned in interviews that he had landed the quad jump at the end of 2008, but an injury forced him to scale down training of the jump. Ten competed at the 2008–09 JGP Final in Seoul, South Korea, in December 2008. In the short program, he landed a triple axel, but fell on his combination jump and did not complete the combination to place 7th in that segment of the competition. In the free skating segment, Ten landed a triple axel-double toe loop combination and six other triple jumps to place 3rd in that segment of the competition. He placed 5th overall, 0.31 points behind 4th-place finisher Ivan Bariev, and 3.59 points behind bronze medalist Richard Dornbush.