Our Clients:

Field Level Media - Professional sports content solutions | FLM

Jul 31, 2025 11:22 pm

On 7th match point, Alex Michelsen prevails in Toronto

Alex Michelsen
Photo by: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images

Alex Michelsen pulled off a comeback for a notable upset in the third round of the National Bank Open at Toronto on Thursday, but getting to the finish was no easy feat.

The 26th-seeded U.S. player emerged with a 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4 win over third-seeded Lorenzo Musetti of Italy, closing it out on his seventh match point.

Up 5-3 in the third set, Michelsen squandered two match points on Musetti’s serve, then needed five more match points on his own serve (while turning aside two break points for Musetti) before finally ending the 2-hour, 32-minute contest.

The ending reflected a match in which Michelsen, 20, took advantage of just 2 of 9 break-point opportunities while Musetti, 23, was 2 of 12 on break-point chances.

Michelsen leaned on his groundstrokes for the win.

“I am a big guy, I have got to play offensive tennis,” he said. “Especially today, you can’t give a guy like Lorenzo time to bully you around from the baseline, so I was trying to bully him around and I think in the second and third sets I did a really good job. Taking shots early. I was missing a couple but you can’t make them all and I was doing a really good job executing.”

Michelsen moves on to the fourth round of an ATP 1000 event for the first time. Next, he will meet fellow U.S. player Learner Tien, who beat countryman Reilly Opelka 7-6 (3), 6-3 on Thursday.

“The first time in the fourth round feels really good,” Michelsen said. “I have put a lot of hard work in and it is finally starting to pay off a little bit. I was wondering when it would happen and I guess it is starting to happen right now.”

The day’s other matches all saw the higher-seeded players come out on top.

No. 1 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany rallied for a 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2 win over No. 32 Matteo Arnaldi of Italy. No. 5 Holger Rune of Denmark downed No. 29 Alexandre Muller of France 6-2, 6-4, and No. 8 Casper Ruud of Norway beat No. 30 Nuno Borges of Portugal 7-5, 6-4.

No. 11 Karen Khachanov of Russia defeated the United States’ Emilio Nava 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-1, and No. 14 Francisco Cerundolo won an all-Argentine matchup with Tomas Martin Etcheverry, 6-3, 6-4.

In the final match of the night, No. 10 Daniil Medvedev of Russia squared off with No. 18 Alexei Popyrin of Australia.

–Field Level Media

You may also like

Sinner
Aug 30, 2025 8:13 pm

No. 1 Jannik Sinner gets pushed before finishing off Denis Shapovalov

No. 1 player in the world Jannik Sinner of Italy dropped his first set Saturday, but he rallied in familiar dominating fashion to down Canadian Denis Shapovalov 5-7, 6-4, 6-3,…

Jelena Ostapenko
Aug 30, 2025 5:23 pm

Jelena Ostapenko apologizes for some of her Taylor Townsend comments

Jelena Ostapenko issued an apology Saturday for some of her comments stemming from a tense exchange with Taylor Townsend after she lost to the American in a second-round match at…

coco gauff
Aug 30, 2025 4:37 pm

Coco Gauff cruises into Round of 16 at U.S. Open

Third-seeded Coco Gauff limited issues with her serve on Saturday while notching a 6-3, 6-1 victory over No. 28 Magdalena Frech of Poland in a third-round match at the U.S….

More Tennis News

Sinner
Aug 30, 2025 8:13 pm

No. 1 Jannik Sinner gets pushed before finishing off Denis Shapovalov

No. 1 player in the world Jannik Sinner of Italy dropped his first set Saturday, but he rallied in familiar dominating fashion to down Canadian Denis Shapovalov 5-7, 6-4, 6-3,…

Jelena Ostapenko
Aug 30, 2025 5:23 pm

Jelena Ostapenko apologizes for some of her Taylor Townsend comments

coco gauff
Aug 30, 2025 4:37 pm

Coco Gauff cruises into Round of 16 at U.S. Open

frances tiafoe
Aug 29, 2025 6:40 pm

Ben Shelton retires, Frances Tiafoe bounced from U.S. Open

pegula
Aug 29, 2025 5:55 pm

Jessica Pegula, Elena Rybakina forge on at U.S. Open; Jasmine Paolini upset

Read all
fb-post
advertisment
title-icon

Upcoming events

See all odds
[gs-fb-comments]