In tennis there are the can’t-miss kids, and the won’t-quit kids. The can’t-miss kids, like Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, are ticketed for big things before they ever turn pro.
The won’t-quit kids take a different path to the pros.
Count 19-year-old American Alex Michelsen in that group.
“You can say I had a chip on my shoulder, because not a lot of people thought I was going to be good, and that’s okay,” he told BNPParibasOpen.com on Thursday, after defeating Spain’s Jaume Munar, 6-2, 6-3. “I didn’t either, for a long time, so I think just trying to push myself all the time is a big motivating factor for me.”
Michelsen, who stands 6’4” tall and packs a menacing backhand and plus footwork, has certainly done his share of pushing over the last 52 weeks.
The rising American, ranked No.306 when he tried to qualify for the BNP Paribas Open this time last year, now sits at No.80, just seven spots shy of his career high.
He will face fellow American Tommy Paul, the No.17 seed, in second round action at Indian Wells. Paul edged Michelsen 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(4) last month in Delray Beach, in the pair’s first meeting. Michelsen, a Southern California native, would like nothing more than to exact his revenge on home turf.
“I’m very fired up, I’m going to have a lot of people coming from home to support,” he said. “My mom, my brothers. I lost a tight one to him in Delray Beach, 7-6 in third so I’m hoping I can get him this time.”
On Thursday Michelsen meticulously moved past Spain’s Munar and in doing so displayed his promise. He becomes the youngest American man to win a match at a Masters 1000 event since 2017, when Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe each won matches at the Miami Open – a statistic that the Aliso Viejo, California native was both surprised and impressed to hear about.
“I didn’t know that,” he said, when told of the milestone. “That makes me very happy. It shows that the work has been paying off.”
Since Michelsen, a former junior No.25, stormed onto the scene in Newport, Rhode Island last summer, reaching the final in his second ATP event, all eyes have been on him.
The won’t-quit kid hasn’t missed.
Michelsen made his debut at the 2023 US Open (second round) and the 2024 Australian Open (third round), and logged high profile wins over No.23-ranked Jiri Lehecka and No.9-ranked Alex de Minaur. He is 11-6 on the season and with every match he has played Michelsen has gained comfort with the stressful nature of competing at the highest level of the sport.
What has been the key lesson he has learned from his first nine months on the ATP Tour?
“I think just telling yourself there’s always another week, because at the end of the day there’s only one winner every week,” he said. “It can be mentally exhausting, you're like ‘I should have won this, I should have won that,’ but try to tell yourself that there’s always going to be another week.”
After a particularly disappointing loss in February, one in which he won the first nine games and squandered three match points before losing 0-6, 7-6(1), 7-5 to Australian Jordan Thompson, the lesson hit home harder than usual.
“That’s what I told myself after I lost to Jordan Thompson when I had match points,” Michelsen said. “It’s tough to [accept] but there’s always going to be another week, and there’s always going to be another opportunity to do well.”
Alcaraz laid the blueprint for a new era of teen success on tour in 2022 when he became the youngest player to win a major since 2005 and the youngest player to ever finish a season as the ATP’s No.1-ranked player. In the years that followed Denmark’s Holger Rune and Italy’s Sinner have continued to demonstrate that youth is power on the ATP Tour.
Michelsen doesn’t expect to produce a meteoric breakthrough like Alcaraz did. He just wants to keep learning, keep growing and – most important - keep rising.
“I feel like [winning a major] this year would be a push, I feel like, for me,” he said. “I was never always going to be good like Carlos – everybody knew Carlos was going to be good. If it happens great, and if not, I’m just going to keep working hard.”
