![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Michelsen_USOpen_2026.jpg\")
Alex Michelsen, US Open 2026 | \u00a9 AP Photo\/Seth Wenig\/SIPA<\/p>\nMichelsen had served for the match at 5-4 in the third. He opened the game with two double faults, landed no first serves in it, and was broken. \u201cYou\u2019re four points away from making a semifinal of the US Open, and it\u2019s a horrible way to look at it obviously, because you can only play one point at a time,\u201d the 22-year-old said afterwards. \u201cHonestly, sometimes my arm, I\u2019m like, oh, it\u2019s so tight, but I wasn\u2019t that tight. I just kind of missed a couple of serves, and after I double faulted twice, I was, like, oh, here we go. It\u2019s not good. I feel like I just handed it to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The embrace at the end lasted longer than either of them expected. \u201cAs soon as I hugged him I saw he was crying already,\u201d Tiafoe said. \u201cI was like, \u2018man, I know. I know how much that hurts, but you\u2019re gonna be here so many more times, man\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
He had gone up there without thinking about it. \u201cWe\u2019re just good friends. Maybe if it was, like, a foreign or European dude, I probably would have had a bigger immediate reaction. I really like Alex. I really, really do. And I just wanted to come up there and just dap him up. I didn\u2019t think it was going to be as long as it was, but I understand the moment. He was definitely crying on my shoulders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michelsen\u2019s version came from inside it. \u201cI wasn\u2019t saying much. I was trying to keep it together, and I didn\u2019t do a good job of that. He was saying a lot of nice personal things. Y\u2019ou\u2019ll be there. When I\u2019m older, you\u2019re going to be here, and we\u2019re going to play again in this type of circumstance\u2019. He\u2019s a great guy for consoling me in that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Tiafoe waits until the last minute and finds his level<\/p>\n
Tiafoe was unsparing about the two and a half hours that preceded the turn. \u201cSlow, it was flat. I\u2019m a tough critic of myself. It wasn\u2019t good, let\u2019s put it that way. Three out of five is a blessing, because you have time to get it together. I definitely waited for the last minute.\u201d<\/p>\n
What changed was access to the court rather than intent. \u201cI was able to finally get momentum, see some balls on the court, get in some rallies, find myself at the net, into some good shots to get the crowd going. You see a little opening window, you see turning points. One point can, all of a sudden you\u2019re, four hours later, in a battle just because of one point.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is the third Grand Slam semifinal of his career and all three have come here, after 2022 and 2024, making him the tenth American man in the Open era to reach three or more US Open semifinals and the second this century after Andre Agassi.<\/p>\n
It takes him to No. 8 in the rankings and back inside the top 10 for the first time since September 2023, and it denies Arthur Fils a top 10 debut after this tournament. Tiafoe had arrived past compatriot Martin Damm 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, Japanese qualifier Rei Sakamoto 6-3, 7-6 (2), 7-5, Mon\u00e9gasque No. 22 seed Valentin Vacherot 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 and Russian No. 7 seed Daniil Medvedev 7-6 (1), 6-4, 7-6 (6).<\/p>\n
Michelsen loses a set for the first time, and then three<\/p>\n
Michelsen came into the day as the only man left in the men\u2019s draw who had not dropped a set, 12-0 after beating Italian qualifier Federico Cina 6-4, 6-1, 6-0, No. 16 seed Brandon Nakashima 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, Spain\u2019s Daniel Merida 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-3 and Argentinian No. 27 seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry 7-6 (6), 6-4, 6-4. Ranked No. 46 and in a first Grand Slam quarterfinal, he has never won one above ATP 250 level.<\/p>\n
His own account divides the match at the same point Tiafoe does. \u201cThe first three sets I was on top of him. He wasn\u2019t playing like Frances. Then I kind of let him back in at 5-4. After that, he was playing like Frances does on Ashe. In the fourth set I wasn\u2019t fully there mentally, but fifth set I\u2019m super proud of myself the way I handled myself. I was playing every single point full. I did everything right in the fifth. Just didn\u2019t go my way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alex Michelsen, US Open 2026 | \u00a9 AP Photo\/Seth Wenig\/SIPA<\/p>\n
US Open 2026, men\u2019s singles quarter finals<\/p>\n
A. Zverev [1] vs B. Van de Zandschulp \u2013 not played
K. Khachanov vs A. Blockx [28] \u2013 not played
F. Tiafoe [11] d. A. Michelsen: 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6(6)
B. Shelton [8] vs C. Alcaraz [2] \u2013 not played<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michelsen had served for the match at 5-4 in the third. He opened the game with two double…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":888715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-888714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}