Taylor Fritz falls to Alex Michelsen in Indian Wells battle of Southern Californians

INDIAN WELLS, Calif.—A tremendous display of energy and alertness, accompanied by savvy wind management, were the defining factors that propelled world No. 44 Alex Michelsen to a 6-4, 7-6 (6) upset win over seventh-seeded Taylor Fritz in a third round match at the BNP Paribas Open this afternoon.

Bursting forward with intensity from the start, Michelsen frequently smothered Fritz with deeper drives, better than usual serves and, in the wake of a late stage hiccup, a Houdini-like escape in the secondset tiebreaker.

“To beat someone like Taylor, you have to go out there and have a lot of energy,” said Michelsen. “I feel like that's also kind of my style. I'm one of those guys that shows a little more energy, shows a little more positivity and negativity. Both ways, right?”

Fritz was uncomfortable for the vast majority of the match.

“I think that I struggled a lot with the wind in the beginning,” he said. “I was trying to be aggressive, and when I was trying to be aggressive with the wind, I just couldn't. Just made a lot of mistakes mistiming the ball, so I kind of had to just accept that wasn't really working and try to just put more balls in the court.”

Only late in the second set, down 3-5, did Fritz assert himself as American tennis’ highest-ranked male, and begin to play at least a semblance of the tennis that had taken him to the title here four years ago. With Michelsen serving for the match at 5-4, 30-15, Fritz drove a deep backhand return that extracted a netted backhand.  Subsequently earning a break point to level the set, Fritz scampered brilliantly and capped off the rally with a carved forehand down-the-line winner.

Despite Fritz’s near-midnight surge, Michelsen was usually the one in command. He broke serve at 1-1 in first set, triggering a dropped racket from an anguished Fritz. Soon enough, Michelsen handily closed out the opener at 15. And when Michelsen captured Fritz’s at 2-all in the second set, Fritz this time broke his frame over his knee.

Based on the way the match was going, you’d think Michelsen was the veteran, Fritz the less-experienced competitor.

“But he was playing well,” said Fritz.  “He was able to dictate and move me around and, you know, with how windy I felt like it was, he was doing a really good job with still being able to attack.”

Considering that these two each have big serves, it was surprising to see the tiebreaker take a number of twists and turns. With Michelsen making four forehand errors, Fritz quickly went ahead 4-1. A third set appeared imminent. But Michelsen fought back well.

With Fritz holding a set point at 6-5, Michelsen threw up a couple of lobs that kept the rally alive and gave him the chance to win the point, thrilling the nearly filled to capacity Stadium 2. Two backhand errors from Fritz capped it off.

“Yeah, definitely got a little lucky at the end,” said Michelsen, “but stayed as tough as I could. Had a tough game at 5-4, felt like I should have served it out there, but stayed composed.”

Fritz also commended Michelsen’s serve. “I practice with him a lot,” said Fritz. “I don't feel like he normally serves that well. Just especially on the big points today, he just served incredible on a lot of the big points.”

In addition to nine aces and winning 57 percent of his second-serve points (compared to only 39 percent for Fritz), Michelsen saved seven of eight break points.

“Yeah, I felt like I was making a lot of first serves,” Michelsen said, “hitting spots well, and I was hitting all four of the spots so he couldn't really get a read, I felt like. Yeah, I think I served really well today.”

This was a meaningful victory for Michelsen. In his last four tournaments, he’d been unable to string together two straight victories. But Michelsen has now won two matches at Indian Wells for the first time in his career.

“It's a very important win,” said Michelsen. “Top ten player, been top American for many years, someone I have looked up to for a long time.”

Now having reached the round of 16 at a Masters 1000 event for the second time in his career, Michelsen next faces the winner of the match between Daniil Medvedev and Sebastian Baez. He’s 0-3 versus Medvedev and has never played Baez. The highly positive energy Michelsen showed versus Fritz—a raw and compelling appetite for competition—could well take this Orange County resident further at his near-backyard tournament.