![\"tennis](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Pro-Player-Gear-610X150-03.jpg\")
<\/a>tennis express pro player gear<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s a very important win. Top-10 player, been top American for many years, someone I have
looked up to for a long time,\u201d Michelsen said. \u201cIt\u2019s a very big win for me, especially to do it out here close
to home and get another fourth round of a Masters, I think it\u2019s my second time. Yeah, it\u2019s a big win for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exuding guile and grit, Michelsen toppled the 2022 champion Fritz\u2014his frequent practice partner\u2014to reach the Indian Wells fourth round for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kind of went back to muscle memory at that point,\u201d Michelsen said of his sliding set-point saves, \u201cAlso got a little lucky twice there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laguna Hills native Michelsen will face either 11th-seeded Dubai champion Daniil Medvedev or Sebastian Baez for a quarterfinal spot.<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old Michelsen scored the biggest win of his career and hit a milestone mark in the process. Michelsen and 20-year-old Learner Tien, who out-dueled Ben Shelton 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-3 in an all-American clash of lefties yesterday, are both into the round of 16. It\u2019s the first time multiple American men aged 21-and-under have reached the Indian Wells round of 16 since former No. 1 Andy Roddick and Robby Ginepri did it way back in 2023 when the tournament featured a 64-player draw.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Michelsen and Tien grew up playing the ultra-competitive SoCal junior circuit together and are inspiring each other as pros.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was super happy for him. I talked to him after the match,\u201d Michelsen said of Tien. \u201cI was
texting him, and he texted me after I won today.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it\u2019s always nice when we try and go like this to each other, try and one-up each other. He\u2019s definitely beating me right now, so I have to catch him eventually. It\u2019s really fun. We\u2019re both doing super well at the same tournament. Doesn\u2019t happen very often, but we\u2019re enjoying it a lot, and
we\u2019re rooting for each other, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a frustrating loss for Fritz, who hit the breaking point early in the second set.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The seventh-seeded Fritz failed to convert on a break point in the fourth game. From Love-40 down, Fritz saved to break points but missed a clear look at a forehand down the line.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Festering frustration erupted as Fritz snapped his Head racquet over his knee after Michelsen broke for 3-2.<\/p>\n
Serving to consolidate, Michelsen rallied from triple break point down, hitting three winners in a row. The 6\u20194\u201d Michelsen scraped out a low backhand volley to set up an easy high forehand volley that helped him hold for 4-2.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday I was really impressed with how he served,\u201d Fritz said. \u201cI practice with him a lot. I don\u2019t 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. When he really needed it, he\u2019d put a serve on the line, a lot of first serves.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very good serving from him today. I mean, in general, he\u2019s got great hands. He comes to the net well. He can move the ball around great with his backhand. Like I said, I practice with him quite a bit. I was impressed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though Michelsen failed to serve out the match up 5-4, 30-15, he navigated the tricky tiebreaker.<\/p>\n
Operating near the back wall against former US Open finalist Fritz is not where opponents want to be on hard courts. Michelsen did not panic taking a page from his mom\u2019s playbook. Michelsen\u2019s mother, Sondra, who starred on the San Diego State tennis team, hit with her son nearly daily from the time he was 4 years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a wall,\u201d Michelsen said, sharing his first win over mom came when he was 14 or 15.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It is Michelsen\u2019s second win over Fritz in as many meetings following his 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 victory on the red clay of the 2024 Geneva event.<\/p>\n
Michelsen served 71 percent, saved 7 of 8 break points and hit 30 winners\u2014two more than Fritz\u2014in an enthralling 99-minute win.<\/p>\n
It comes one round after Michelsen fended off Frenchman Ugo Humbert in a pulsating 7-5, 6-7(5), 7-6(6) on Stadium 5 that closed the schedule on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
In both matches, Michelsen showed competitive spine\u2014and a fearlessness to attack on pivotal points. Those will be essential elements should he face former world No. 1 Medvedev next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Richard Pagliaro | Monday, March 9, 2026Photo credit: BNP Paribas Open Facebook INDIAN WELLS\u2014Alex Michelsen\u2019s back was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-515048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}