US OPEN

September 8, 2026

Alex Michelsen

Press Conference

F. TIAFOE/A. Michelsen

5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Great run here. I know it's tough to have it end that way. Obviously there were emotions. Just talk about what you were feeling after the match.

ALEX MICHELSEN: Yeah, nothing good. You know, it's a tough match, but you know, I fought as hard as I could, and it just didn't go my way today. Got a little tight at 5-4 in the third.

At the end of the day, made my first quarterfinal of a slam. Lost to, like I said in my other press conference, someone that is probably a top-5 player here in Frances. Trying to keep my head high, and yeah, on to the next one.

Q. Can you talk about, after the match, the nice hug you guys had and everything, maybe what you were saying to each other there.

ALEX MICHELSEN: I wasn't saying much. I was trying to keep it together, and I didn't do a good job of that. He was saying a lot of nice personal things.

You'll be there. When I'm older, you're going to be here, and we're going it play again in this type of circumstance. All that good stuff.

He's a great guy for consoling me in that moment.

Q. You mentioned getting tight when you were trying to serve for it at 5-4. Do you feel like after that, Frances started finding his footing? Because it seemed like the level from you all both rose the final two sets.

ALEX MICHELSEN: For sure. Yeah, I feel the first three sets I was on top of him. I feel like he didn't really -- he wasn't playing like Frances. Then I kind of let him back in at 5-4.

Then after that, he was playing, you know, like Frances does on Ashe. After that, it was a dogfight. In the fourth set I wasn't fully there mentally, but fifth set I'm super proud of myself the way I handled myself. I was playing every single point full. No complaining about anything to anyone. You know, I did everything right in the fifth. Just didn't go my way.

Q. What did you feel when the 5-4 game started, and more specifically, did the stakes become too real, was it thinking ahead? What sort of happened?

ALEX MICHELSEN: Yeah, you're four points away from making a semifinal of the US Open, and you know, it's a horrible way to look at it obviously, because you can only play one point at a time.

Honestly, sometimes my arm, I'm like, Oh, it's so tight, but I wasn't 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's not good.

I feel like I just handed it to him. Then after that he started playing really good.

Q. You didn't recover until the fifth probably?

ALEX MICHELSEN: Yeah, I went to the bathroom after the third, tried to recover mentally. I had break point early in the third -- or in the fourth early and didn't get it. Then, yeah, played a bad game on my serve.

At 0-3 in the fourth I was feeling better. I broke back. I was on serve, but yeah, a lot of regrets, but it's okay. Life goes on.

Q. I know you haven't been around that long, and you haven't been on a stage like this before, but in terms of, like, disappointment, heartbreak, hard losses, have you ever experienced anything like this before that you think about? And obviously every tennis player has to bounce back from a tough loss. They all have them.

ALEX MICHELSEN: You know, I think the only thing, when you ask that, the only thing that comes to mind is I played Jordan Thompson in Los Cabos. I was up a set, 4-1, break points, lost it, and then he won the tournament. I was pretty pissed.

But this is on a different scale. That was quarters of a 250, and this is quarters of a slam, so it's a little bit different, you know, playing on Ashe.

It's definitely one of the bigger disappointments, but again, I'm just super happy that I showed myself I can make a quarter of a slam, and I'm only 22. I've got a lot of time to grow physically and mentally. I'm going to be here again. I know it.

Q. Any talk with Learner in the last 24 hours since he had a tough one last night?

ALEX MICHELSEN: No. He had a tough one, as well. I didn't text him. I wanted to give him his space. We're usually just sending memes to each other. That's kind of our form of communication.

Yeah, I think he has a lot of good people around him, so hopefully he was using them last night. Just like me, I've got good people around me, and I'll try to use them tonight as well.

Q. When you broke down at the end, was it to do with the fact that you had come close? Was it the overall emotion of the match that it just, you know, you were drained? Then at the end, how long did it take you to just compose yourself and feel okay? Not that you're feeling great.

ALEX MICHELSEN: No, I'm not feeling wonderful. No, but yeah, I think it was a combination of a lot of things. The match was very emotionally draining.

Then, you know, it's just Frances. I don't think anyone else could have made me cry in that moment, to be honest. Maybe Learner. But Frances, he's such a good guy, and he said a lot of personal things and just kind of got to me.

Then, yeah, I mean, it took me a few minutes, but I mean, yeah, it's normal after a match like that, emotions like that. It takes a little bit of time to get back down to earth, but, you know, I'm here talking to you now, so I did okay.

Q. Just curious, did you consider getting tight in that moment, is that something normal that happens for someone in their first Grand Slam quarterfinal? Do you consider it's something that you have to learn from really?

ALEX MICHELSEN: Yeah, it's something I'm going to learn from, for sure. I feel I'm not the first guy that's done that, and I'm not going to be the last guy that's done that in a quarterfinal.

I think, yeah, the nerves played a big part, first time being in a quarterfinal. You know, my first time in a fourth round in Australia, I played a horrendous match. So first time in the next step at a major, I played a much, much better match. I'm really proud of myself for that.

Yeah, next time I'm in this situation, I'm going to learn, and I'm going to do things the right way.

Q. What do you typically do to get over a tough loss? Will you do anything different this time around?

ALEX MICHELSEN: I don't know, eat In-N-Out when I go home. Sounds like a pretty good thing actually right now.

I'll take a few days off. I'll be fine. I'm a competitor. I'll be ready to play in my next tournament very soon. Probably two days from now I'll be itching to do something.

I'll probably take a little time off. You know, just physically, emotionally just rest a little bit after this. This is a lot for me, but yeah.