Alex Michelsen became the first No. 1 seed to win the singles championship of the Cranbrook Tennis Classic.
The 21-year-old beat Jacob Fearnley, the 8-seed, 7-6 (4), 6-3 in Sunday afternoon’s final.
It marked a bit of payback from their first-round thriller just weeks ago when Fearnley got the best of Michelsen, who was leading that meeting by two sets until Fearnley dominated from there out to win in five.
Michelsen finished with 10 aces to Fearnley’s two on Sunday, and also had the edge in second serve return points won and double faults.
What’s in a seed? Depends who you ask at the Cranbrook Tennis Classic
This was Michelsen’s fourth overall ATP Challenger Tour win and first since the Estoril Open in April 2025. Between the two, he beat Lorenzo Musetti and Learner Tien on a run to the 2025 Canadian Open quarterfinals and this year reached the fourth round of the Indian Wells Open and the Miami Open.
Challenger Tour success isn’t foreign to Fearnley either. He won his first four singles finals and picked up his fifth win earlier this month at the Hall of Fame Open, defeating Adam Walton, who’d beaten Michelsen in the semifinals.
Fearnley, a four-year All-American at TCU who helped the Horned frogs to back-to-back ITA Indoor National Titles and the program’s first NCAA D1 championship, rose to No. 114 in the ATP rankings with this week’s performance.