Michelsen’s Winston-Salem QF win a good omen?

23.08.2024 04:32

pWhen a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/christopher-eubanks/e865/overview'Christopher Eubanks/a captured his maiden ATP Tour title in Mallorca last year, the American needed to escape an opening round three-setter against a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alex-michelsen/m0qi/overview'Alex Michelsen/a before eventually lifting the trophy. The 19-year-old Michelsen avenged that loss Thursday at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/winston-salem/6242/overview'Winston-Salem Open/a with a narrow 7-5, 6-7(6), 7-6(5) win as he continues his own quest for his first tour-level crown./p

pWill Michelsen's tight victory in North Carolina also prove the springboard to his first ATP Tour title?/pp

Celebrating his 20th birthday on Sunday, Michelsen was two points from victory at 6/6 in the second-set tie-break, but was forced to a decider. Producing clean hitting and several acute angle passing shots by the 6'7" Eubanks, the teen held his nerve to advance after two hours, 29 minutes./p

p"I thought we both played pretty well, it was a high-quality match," Michelsen said. "When he was coming up with no-look volley winners, it wasn't that fun for me, but I'm sure it was fun for everybody else. It was a battle. /p

p"I was just going to keep going after my shots and I'm glad it paid off. In the second-set tie-break, I missed a couple shots that were a little bit regrettable. In the third-set breaker, I felt like I didn't miss too many shots."/p

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Michelsen has appeared in two tour-level finals, both of which came in Newport (2024, 2023). The California native is hoping to go one step further this week as he continues his quest for a Top 50 breakthrough. Michelsen is competing this week at a career-high No. 52 in the PIF ATP Rankings./p

pUp next for the 11th seed, second in the PIF ATP Live Race To Jeddah, is 2016 champion a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/pablo-carreno-busta/cd85/overview'Pablo Carreno Busta/a. Michelsen is aiming for a return trip to the 20-and-under a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/next-gen-atp-finals/7696/overview'Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF/a, which runs from 18-22 December. Last year he did not advance beyond the round-robin stage./pp

Carreno Busta ended the dream run of a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/learner-tien/t0ha/overview'Learner Tien/a, the 18-year-old American who was competing in his first ATP Tour event. The Spaniard cruised to a 6-4, 6-2 win, extending his tournament match-win record to 19./pp

The 33-year-old is into his third Winston-Salem semi-final and first overall since triumphing at the 2022 ATP Masters 1000 event in Montreal. A seven-time tour-level titlist, Carreno Busta is playing just his fifth ATP Tour tournament of the season. He missed much of the past year and a half due to elbow tendonitis./ppdiv

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In the top half of the draw, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/david-goffin/gb88/overview'David Goffin/a and 10th seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/lorenzo-sonego/su87/overview'Lorenzo Sonego/a will meet in the semi-finals after they each earned a straight-sets win. The Belgian Goffin cruised past a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/rinky-hijikata/h0bh/overview'Rinky Hijikata/a 6-1, 6-3 to reach his first semi-final since 2022 Marrakech, where the 33-year-old won his most recent trophy of six tour-level titles./p

pSonego produced a heavy-hitting performance to oust a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/pavel-kotov/k09f/overview'Pavel Kotov/a 6-3, 7-5. The first Italian semi-finalist in Winston-Salem tournament history, the 29-year-old created 16 break chances, converting three of them, according to Infosys ATP Stats. Friday will be Sonego's first tour-level semi-final of 2024. /p

pGoffin leads Sonego 1-0 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series. Their previous meeting came in 2021 at the ATP 250 in Montpellier, an event that Goffin went on to win./ppstrongWatch Thursday’s Extended Highlights:/strong/brdiv