By Richard Pagliaro Monday, March 9, 2026
Image source: BNP Paribas Open Facebook
Indian Wells—Alex Michelson Back against the wall and caught in the shadows Taylor Fritz Shots were fired.
The 6-foot-4 Michelson is an aggressive baseliner by nature, but today’s stalwart defense sparked the biggest win of his career.
In the tie-break, Michelsen was trailing 5-6. He rushed from sideline to sideline to defend Fritz’s consecutive spikes, and then made a mistake.
A dynamic Michelsen defeated seventh-seeded Fritz 6-4, 7-6(6) on penalties in All-American Arena 2 to win the final three points of the decider.
“It’s a very important win. A top-10 player, a top player in the United States for many years, someone I have
It’s been anticipated for a long time,” Michelson said. “It’s a really big win for me, especially to do it here and up close.
Coming back home and getting to the fourth round of the Masters again, I think it was my second time. Yeah, that’s a huge win for me. “
Exuding cunning and grit, Michelsen defeated his regular practice partner, 2022 champion Fritz, to reach the fourth round of Indian Wells for the first time.
“That’s when I kind of went back to muscle memory,” Michelson said of his sliding set-point save, “and was kind of lucky both times.”
Michaelson, a Laguna Hills native, will face either 11th-seeded Dubai champion Daniil Medvedev or Sebastian Baez for a quarterfinal spot.
The 21-year-old Michelsen scored the biggest win of his career and set a huge milestone in the process. michaelson and 20 learner fieldwho wins the duel Ben Shelton Yesterday, in an All-American left-hander match, the two entered the top 16 with scores of 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-3. It’s the first time since former world No. 1s Andy Roddick and Robbie Ginepri joined the 64-player draw in 2023 that multiple American men 21 and under are in the last 16 at Indian Wells.
Mikaelson and Tian grew up together on the competitive Southern California junior circuit and inspired each other as pros.
“I’m very happy for him. I talked to him after the game,” Michelsen said of Tian. “I was
Text him, he texted me after I won today.
“Yeah, it’s always good when we try to compete against each other like this, try to outshine each other. He’s definitely beating me now, so I got to catch him eventually. It’s really fun. We both performed really well in the same game. It doesn’t happen very often, but we’re enjoying it, and
We definitely support each other. “
It was a frustrating defeat for Fritz, who reached break point early in the second set.
Fritz, the seventh seed, failed to break serve in the fourth game. From Love-40, Fritz saved a break point but missed a clear forehand.
After Michelsen broke serve for 3-2, Fritz broke his head racket onto his knees and frustration boiled over.
Michelsen rallied under three break points and hit three consecutive winners. The 6-foot-4 Michelsen fired a low backhand volley and easily hit a high forehand volley to seal the score at 4-2.
“I was really impressed with the way he served today,” Fritz said. “I’ve practiced with him a lot. I feel like he usually doesn’t serve that well. Especially today on the key points, his serve was unbelievable on a lot of key points. When he really needs to, he puts the serve on the line, a lot of first serves.
“He served really well today. I mean, overall, he’s got great hands. He gets to the net really well. He can move the ball really well with his backhand. Like I said, I practiced a lot with him. I’m impressed.”
Although Michelsen failed to win the game with a score of 5-4, 30-15, he still survived the tricky decider.
On hard courts, opponents don’t want to be near the back wall against former U.S. Open finalist Fritz. Michelson didn’t panic to take a page from his mother’s playbook. Michaelson’s mother, Sandra, is a star player on the San Diego State tennis team and has played with her son almost every day since he was 4 years old.
“She was a wall,” said Michelson, whose first victory over his mother was when he was 14 or 15 years old.
This is Michelsen’s second victory over Fritz in as many games after winning 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 on clay at the 2024 Geneva event.
Michelsen hit 71 percent of her serve, saved seven of eight break points and hit 30 winners – two more than Fritz – in a mesmerizing 99-minute victory.
This is the round after Michelsen defeated the Frenchman Ugo Humbert The match ended with a score of 7-5, 6-7(5), 7-6(6) on Saturday night in Arena 5.
In both games, Michelsen showed a competitive grit and a fearlessness in attacking at key points. These will be essential elements if he next faces former world No. 1 Medvedev.
