Michael Mmoh’s career didn’t take off as quickly or advance quite as far as some of his peers, but he’s taking every opportunity he gets to make an impact—and it’s working. He even defeated John Isner, sending the former American No. 1 into retirement, while matching his personal best result at a major. How's that for a great Thursday?
Mmoh, now 25, came up around the same time as Tommy Paul and Reilly Opelka, but he didn’t rise through the rankings or make deep runs at tournaments at the same pace as his compatriots. Until this year, he had never made it to the third round of a major, and to date, he's yet to claim any tour-level titles.
Instead, saddled with injuries year after year, Mmoh has often been playing qualifying to earn his spot in ATP main draws, or grinding away on the ATP Challenger circuit.
He didn’t make it through qualifying at the 2023 Australian Open, losing in the final round, but won a lucky loser spot into the main draw—a golden ticket. And Mmoh made the most of the chance he was given. He defeated No. 13 Alexander Zverev in the second round of the tournament, en route to his third-round appearance. There, he then lost to fellow American J.J. Wolf.
But after the win over Zverev, Mmoh said he was feeling the "lucky" part of the "lucky loser" moniker.
“I don't think I'm ever going to say I'm an unlucky person for the rest of my life. I don't think I deserve to say that,” he said in a press conference. “I don't know if I'm going to finally wake up or something. It just doesn't seem real. The past 48 hours [have] been a complete whirlwind. I was supposed to leave yesterday. Now I’m here and I just had the best win of my career.”
After the Australian Open, Mmoh earned direct entry into the Delray Beach tournament in February and reached the quarterfinals, earning wins over Aleksandar Kovacevic and Denis Shapovalov. Those two runs boosted his ranking to a career-high 82, nearly 190 spots higher than at the same point in 2022.
His next moment to shine came at Wimbledon, where he was a lucky loser once again. He didn’t make it past Round 2, but he took down No. 12 Felix Auger-Aliassime in the first round.
Mmoh has had a good summer on the hard-court swing, reaching the third round at the Mubadala Citi DC Open and the Winston-Salem Open. In Washington, D.C., he beat No. 17 Hubert Hurkacz, and Marcos Giron in Winston-Salem.
He earned a wild card into the US Open main draw where he defeated No. 11 Karen Khachanov in straight sets, then came back from two sets down to beat Isner in a grueling five-setter, sending his fellow American into retirement. Mmoh fired off 27 aces in his first two matches in Queens, and saved five break points. He now faces No. 123 Jack Draper on in the third round.
After his second round match, Mmoh reflected on his progress throughout the years. Even though he didn’t experience the same success on tour as quickly as his peers, Mmoh said he knew that his game was there and he would just have to keep working. Watching his peers succeed was tough at times, but Mmoh knew that at one point they were all the same level, and if they could make it to the top of the tour, he could join them.
Now, he has a little more confidence, and he would go back and tell his younger self to trust the process and wait for the moment to come.
“Now I really feel like I belong at this level, and I really feel like I can hang with these guys and beat them,” he said. “I think that reputation is going around the locker room as well. If guys see my name in the draw, they know it's not an easy out. Maybe last year they would have thought differently. But I really know that this year things have changed, and I feel that within myself and I feel that kind of circulating within my peers, too.”
