US OPEN

September 6, 2026

Alex Michelsen

Press Conference

A. MICHELSEN/T.M. Etcheverry

7-6, 6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Alex, welcome to the room.

ALEX MICHELSEN: Thank you. First time here.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. Impressive three-set win. On to the quarterfinals. Your thoughts.

ALEX MICHELSEN: I have a lot of good thoughts right now. I can't complain. I have been playing super well the whole week. Haven't dropped a set yet. I have a lot of emotions right now. I'm a little bit short for words, but I'm super happy.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. First-time quarterfinalist. A lot of people are probably going to be surprised that you've done this. Are you surprised from where you were two weeks ago that you're sitting here as a quarterfinalist?

ALEX MICHELSEN: I mean, yes and no. I'm a little bit surprised just because I feel like my run-up form wasn't super good coming into this tournament. And I say no, because I have been working my ass off for, I don't know how many years, playing this sport.

I'm a little bit surprised that it came like this, but at the same time, I always had a feeling it would come.

Q. On a similar note, first time I talked to you, I was struck by your confidence and just how much you believed you could do these sorts of things in the sport. I'm wondering how much that's gone up and down over the years as results maybe weren't always what you wanted them to be, and if it's something you had to rebuild at any point to get to this point?

ALEX MICHELSEN: Yeah, for sure. I'd say my first year on tour, you know, I started off really well. Then all of a sudden I'm playing clay, and my confidence is at an all-time low, probably, in my life, to be completely honest.

Before that, I don't want to say it was always easygoing, but I was winning a lot of matches. And then you get on the tour, and all these guys are psychos, they're unreal. It gets tough. The confidence wavers, for sure, but at the end of the day, I always have that self-belief, because if you don't, I feel I'll lose a match like today's match or against Nakashima, who's been playing super well. Just examples, but yeah, I always try to have as much confidence as possible in myself.

Q. Seems like you came into the event a little under the radar. Do you feel that way as well, and is that how you like it or it doesn't matter or it's hurtful? What are your thoughts?

ALEX MICHELSEN: No, it's not hurtful at all. I love being under the radar. It's great. I would definitely agree with you. I think I've been pretty under the radar.

But at the same time, you know, there's a lot of guys that are younger than me that have been playing super, super well. We could say I haven't deserved the attention, and I'm all good with it. You get what you earn.

Yeah, here we are.

Q. When are your earliest memories of Frances Tiafoe and how has that developed into playing against him?

ALEX MICHELSEN: Yeah, I think I probably first watched him when he played Fed here on Ashe in 2017. I kind of remember watching that from home. I was probably like 12, 13 years old, he was playing. So that was cool.

Yeah, I played him twice. I'm 0-2. Going to have to change something a little bit. It's also been a long time since I have played him. I feel like I've improved.

He's also an unbelievable guy and a very good friend of mine. I think it's going to be an absolute blast. Hopefully we'll play on Ashe, and I think that will be a one-of-a-kind experience.

Q. What do you appreciate most about his game, and what do you consider the biggest challenge for you against him?

ALEX MICHELSEN: I feel like Frances has the "it" factor, every shot in the book. He's a very, very good competitor. He does everything very well. Not too many holes in his game. What was the second part of your question?

Q. Biggest challenge.

ALEX MICHELSEN: Biggest challenge. I think, you know, Frances -- I've said it before -- I think Frances is a top-5 player at the US Open. Always playing good here.

I think that's going to be a tough task for me, but I am going to out there and give it my all.

Q. In Southern California, who are you practicing with and playing with and closest to? There's a group of you guys that's really emerged lately.

ALEX MICHELSEN: I've got to say Learner. Learner's been my guy for five, six years now. We've put in so many hours together, trained at the same academy. Had the same coaches for a long time. He's one of my best friends. Yeah, I mean, he's definitely my closest friend.

I think I have practiced with Brandon a little bit but nothing to the extent I practice with Learner.

Q. How do you compare your personality to Learner's?

ALEX MICHELSEN: On the court, I think we're, like, polar opposites, but off the court, we're pretty similar. Once you get him going, because he's a little quieter, once you get him going, he's one of the funniest guys I know. He's very sneaky about it, but he's a funny guy.

Q. Really?

ALEX MICHELSEN: Yeah, very funny. (Laughter.)

That's why you wouldn't think it, but yeah, he is.

Q. Have you already been asked about the first-set tiebreak?

ALEX MICHELSEN: No.

Q. Seemed like those are some pretty key points when you're down 6-4 in the first set. What is going through your mind at that point where you're facing a really big serve? And just sort of curious, also, through this day, through this tournament, have you felt much nerves?

ALEX MICHELSEN: I mean, yeah, of course I have felt nerves. I played a horrendous breaker up until 6-4, to be completely honest. I made a lot of errors, a lot of bad decisions.

I didn't play a good breaker. I don't want to say I let go, but I was, oh, I don't deserve to win this set. Let's just play a little free. I came in at 6-4, 6-5, hit a couple good volleys. Played a great point at 7-6, as well, just kind of happened that way and got lucky to win that set.

Yeah, of course I felt nerves. First, second, third rounds, all match I'm feeling nerves. It's a human experience, but it's just about going out there and managing them to the best of my ability, and I feel like I've done that very well.

Q. What have you done in order to manage them, as you say, and make sure that the nerves are just the nerves, but certainly hasn't shown up in your tennis?

ALEX MICHELSEN: Yeah, I mean, just trying to focus on one point at a time. I know it's a little cliche, but I haven't always done that. Sometimes look too far ahead or you look behind when something doesn't go your way. But at the end of the day, you can only control the next point.

I feel like, you know, I have been doing a good job of that this tournament, especially in three-out-of-five. If you look ahead, it can be really daunting, just because you've got to win a lot of points, a lot of sets, a lot of games to win the match, so yeah.

Q. The US Open has a Final 8 Club for whoever makes the quarterfinals, so congrats, you're in that now. I wonder how much you've heard about that.

ALEX MICHELSEN: Haven't heard about that. I thought that was only a Wimbledon thing, to be honest.

Q. I think it's all the slams.

ALEX MICHELSEN: Really? I had no idea. First time for me. What do I get for that?

THE MODERATOR: Some more water.

Q. Seems like from watching you you seem to get especially up for playing other Americans. Like when I saw you were going to play Brandon, for example, I thought you might get up for that. You're playing another American next. Do you feel you have a certain kind of different energy when you're playing fellow Americans? You had a couple of wins over Fritz. There are a few times when you kind of stepped up for those sorts of matches.

ALEX MICHELSEN: Yeah, I mean, it's tough to say. I mean, not really. It's just the only thing that I would say is different is that I know them and I practice with them and I'm friends with a lot of them.

I wouldn't say I'm more up for it. If anything, it's more the same. The other difference is that I practice with Taylor a lot, I practice with Nakashima a lot, practice with Learner a lot.

I know what they're going to do, but they also know what I'm going to do. That can be a little tricky, but other than that, I try to take it as a normal match.

Q. Familiarity?

ALEX MICHELSEN: Yeah.

Q. The other day you were sort of downplaying when you were younger, your potential and promise. I don't know if you were just being self-effacing. Did you really feel that way about yourself?

ALEX MICHELSEN: Oh, 100%. No one ever really told me I could be professional until I was 16 years old. Never talked about in my house. No coaches brought it up to me. No one ever brought it up. It was never really an idea for me.

I was starting to get better and better, and I had a coach, Jay, we were doing our 9:00 a.m. hitting forehands like I would back in the day. He was, like, I think you can be top 100 in the world. I was, like, Nah. He was, like, I think you could. He was the first one to tell me. He ended up being right.

You know, from that point on, I was working super hard. You know, I'm super happy to be here.

Q. Following up on that, talk about growing up in Southern California and how there were so many good players there helped you develop and your childhood game.

ALEX MICHELSEN: For sure, for sure. Playing growing up, I would play those local tournaments, Level 3s, 4s, 5s, there's so many good guys. It's not like I'm winning every week, or every weekend.

I mean, SoCal is just a breeding ground for good tennis. I think if I was from, like, Idaho, it would be a little tougher, there's not a lot of guys up there. But in SoCal, we had hundreds of kids that were very, very good that you'd see every weekend playing tournaments. And if I didn't have that structure, I don't think I would be here today.

Q. Hard to stand out in that?

ALEX MICHELSEN: Yeah, exactly.