Hall of Fame Open: Alex Michelsen downs Mackenzie McDonald to reach semifinals

Newport [US], July 22 (ANI): American Alex Michelsen’s breakthrough week hit a new high at the Hall of Fame Open as the 18-year-old downed fourth seed Mackenzie McDonald 6-3, 6-3 to reach his first tour-level semifinal at the ATP 250 event.

The World 190 Michelsen made a great start, losing just one point after his first serve in the first set. After an hour and 11 minutes, the teenager closed the match by making crucial backhand plays.

“I served really well, first-serve percentage was probably pretty high. The serve was key today and I didn’t miss too many groundstrokes either, so that was nice,” Michelsen said in his on-court interview as quoted by ATP.com.

Michelsen didn’t have a tour-level victory when he arrived in Newport (0-1), but he has had a career-best showing, defeating the defending champion Maxime Cressy, James Duckworth, and McDonald to set up a match against John Isner in the semifinals. Last month in Mallorca, Michelsen participated in his first ATP Tour main-draw match, where he was defeated by Christopher Eubanks.

Also taking place in Newport In the quarterfinals on Friday, four-time winner Isner overcame World No. 14 Paul 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(4). Isner extended his  ATP Head2Head record versus Paul to 3-0 by being broken just once the rest of the match after winning only 48 per cent of points off his serve in the first set. After two hours and 41 minutes, Isner prevailed after overcoming a sluggish start and multiple momentum changes.

“He was way better than I was in the first set and the first two holds in the second set were actually very critical, so I was at least ahead in the set and that gave me free rein to go after my returns. I told some fans back there, ‘I hit the best return I’ve ever hit in my life!’ to go up 3-1 in the second set,” Isner said.

“From there, I had a little bit of momentum. I played a really good third set, I think it was pretty high quality, but it was no secret that I did not want to rally with that guy towards the end of the match. So I was going to serve-and-volley and roll the dice that way,” he added.