Fifth seed Alex Michelsen beat his close friend Learner Tien 6-4 6-2 in 70 minutes to reach the second round at the Fayez Sarofim & Co Men’s Clay Court Championships in Houston (ATP 250 tournament). Michelsen avenged his defeat against Tien, who beat his compatriot in the semifinals of the Next Gen ATP Finals in Jeddah.
Michelsen won 18 points than Tien and dropped 11 points in nine service games. He converted four of his eight break points and dropped his serve once from the only break point he faced. Michelsen held five comfortable service games in the first set.
Tien held serve at love in the first game of the opening set. Michelsen earned an early break in the third game with a forehand crosscourt winner to take a 2-1 lead. Michelsen hit an ace in the fourth game to hold serve at love for 3-1. Tien fended off two break points in the seventh game.
Michelsen held at love in the eighth game to take a 5-3 lead. He served for the first set at 5-4 and won an entertaining point to seal the first set 6-4 in 31 minutes.
Michelsen fired a volley winner to earn an early break in the first game of the second set. He consolidated the break by holding serve with a forced error in the second game and came back from 0-40 down in the third game to earn a double break with a backhand winner for 3-0. Tien pulled one break back in the fourth game with a drop shot winner closing the gap to 1-3. Michelsen earned his third consecutive break in the fifth game after a backhand error from Tien to race out to a 4-1 lead.
Michelsen fired a backhand winner in the sixth game for 5-1 forcing Tien to serve to stay in the match.
Tien hit a service winner to close the gap to 2-5.
Michelsen served for the match in the eighth game and earned three match points with a service winner. He converted his second break point with a forehand down the line winner to book his spot in the second round.
Michelsen won 87% of his first serve points.
“I needed to do pretty much everything well. He knows me like the back of his hand. I know him like the back of my hand. I had to serve really well and I feel like I’ve had some really good clay-court prep heading into this tournament, so I feel like that helped me a lot today. It was one of those days where I was playing really well, so super happy with that”, said Michelsen in the post-match interview.
Michelsen will face either Yannik Hanfmann or Nicolas Moreno De Alboran.
Qualifier Jenson Brooksby did not face a break point in his 6-4 6-4 win over Taro Daniel to set up a second round match against third seed Alejandro Tabilo. Brooksby earned an early break in the third game to take a 2-1 lead and held his next service games to win the first set 6-4. The US player broke serve in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead and closed out the second set on his third match point.
Christian Garin, winner in Houston in 2019, beat Swiss player Alexander Ritschard 6-3 6-4 with one break in each set. Garin will take on top seed Tommy Paul.
