Californian teenager Alex Michelsen electrified spectators on Court 6 Tuesday afternoon when he captured his first-ever Grand Slam victory in his first-ever attempt, against tour veteran and 2016 French Open quarterfinalist Albert Ramos-Vinolas. On Day 4, world No. 127 Michelsen—who received a wild card into the event—will face no. 23 seed Nicolas Jarry and try to claim his first-ever win over a seeded player at a major.
That may not be as out of the realm of possibility as one would think—he’s punched above his weight before. Here are some fast facts about the up-and-coming 19-year-old tennis phenom.
He’s already a Wimbledon champion
During his junior career, Michelsen achieved a career-high of world No. 25. But he had no grand plans to become an elite tennis player.
"Before COVID, I was in regular high school, I played high school tennis," Michelsen said in May on the "Behind the Racquet" podcast. "I was good... I was still a solid tennis player but I never thought I'd be playing the ITF juniors to the [junior] slams to futures [tournaments]."
He quickly found that he could compete with the best of them. First, he captured both the 2022 singles and doubles titles at the prestigious Easter Bowl, a junior tournament previously won by some of the top names in the sport: Jenson Brooksby, Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe, Taylor Townsend, Andy Roddick, Jennifer Capriati and John McEnroe all won the event as young players.
Then, three months later, he saw his name permanently etched into the championship hardware at the All England Club when he claimed the Wimbledon boys' doubles title, with fellow American Sebastian Gorzny.
He’s already reached an ATP final
Michelsen only cracked the ATP Top 1000 less than a year ago, in October 2022. Thanks to strong results on the ITF and Challenger circuits, he climbed more than 700 spots by July. That month, he defeated 2014 US Open finalist Kei Nishikori en route to capturing an ATP Challenger title in Chicago, then headed straight to the Hall of Fame Championships in Newport, Rhode Island, where he upset defending champion Maxime Cressy, Mackenzie McDonald and former Top 10 player John Isner to reach the final. (He'd end up finishing runner-up to Adrian Mannarino, of France.) Prior to the dream week, he'd captured just one tour-level win.
He comes from a tennis family
Father Erik played for the University of Redlands, where he was a three-time All-American. Mom Sondra was part of a San Diego State University team that won the Big West Conference Tennis Championships. Alex, too, planned to continue the family’s college tennis tradition, committing to the University of Georgia. That all changed following his wins in Newport. He’s now opted to go pro.
ESPN commentator Brad Gilbert, who currently serves as Coco Gauff’s coaching consultant, is in his corner
Gilbert—who watched Alex play at several ITF tournaments earlier in the year—raved about Michelsen's tennis bona fides to ATPTour.com.
"His two strengths are that he moves incredibly for 6-foot-4 and he knows how to defend, kind of like an [Andy] Murray skill, or a Brooksby," Gilbert told the website. "But he's even faster than Brooksby."
In 2021, Brooksby—a young, gifted American wild card from California—made a deep run to the Round of 16, where he took a set off top seed Novak Djokovic. Can Alex—a young, gifted American wild card from California—do something similar in 2023?
