Alex Michelsen came back from one set down to beat Lorenzo Musetti 3-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 after 2 hours and 31 minutes reaching the fourth round at a Masters 1000 tournament for the first time in his career. Michelsen hit 32 winners to 48 unforced errors.
Musetti earned the first break in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead after Michelsen made a double fault. The Italian player did not face any break point and closed out the opening set 6-3 on his first set point.
Musetti did not face a break point in the first game of the second set. He saved two break points in the eighth game. Both players went on serve en route to the tie-break. Michelsen earned an early mini-break to take a 2-1 lead. Musetti pulled back on serve to draw level to 2-2. Michelsen earned two more mini-breaks to win the tie-break 7-4.
Musetti went up 0-40 in the second game of the third set. Michelsen saved the first two break points, but Musetti converted his third chance when Michelsen made a double fault. Michelsen broke straight back in the third game. Michelsen saved four break points to hold serve in the fourth game. The 20-year-old US player converted his third break point in the in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead.
Musetti earned a break-back point in the eighth game, but Michelsen saved it to hold serve. Michelsen squandered two match points on Musetti’s serve at 3-5. Musetti saved the fourth match point with a backhand winner. Michelsen saved two break-back points before sealing the win on his seventh match point.
“I am a big guy, I have got to play offensive tennis. Especially today, you can’t give a guy like Lorenzo time to bully you around from the baseline, so I was trying to bully him around and I think in the second and third sets I did a really good job. Taking shots early. I was missing a couple but you can’t make them all and I was doing a really good job executing”, said Michelsen.
