MELBOURNE — Alex Michelsen, a 20-year-old American, produced the biggest win of his young career with a 7-5, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 first-round upset of 2023 Australian Open runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas, the No. 11 seed, on Monday at Melbourne Park.
Michelsen became the second unseeded American man to defeat a top-11 seed in the opening round in Melbourne, joining Patrick McEnroe, who defeated Boris Becker in 1995.
It was also Michelsen’s first major win over a top-15 seed; he had never beaten anyone seeded higher than 32 in his Grand Slam career.
Mixing guile with finesse, Michelsen kept his cool under pressure on rallies and found success at the net as he went up 2-0 before Tsitsipas recovered to take the third set.
Michelsen’s three booming service returns in the ninth game of the fourth set helped him earn a vital break against Tsitsipas and, after shaking off jitters on his own serve, he closed out to set up a second-round match against either Australian wild card James McCabe or Spanish qualifier Martin Landaluce.
Michelsen had beaten Tsitsipas, who is from Greece, in their only previous meeting at last year’s Japan Open.
ESPN Research, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
