Alex Michelsen is aiming for a bit of personal history at the US Open as he eyes his first-ever Grand Slam semi-final.

The 22-year-old has rolled into the quarter-finals of this year’s US Open after beating Federico Cina, 16th seed Brandon Nakashima, Daniel Merida, and 27th seed Tomas Martin Etecheverry in straight sets.

The California native is just off his career-high ranking of 30, with the 6ft 4in player currently at 33 in the live ATP Rankings. However, Michelsen will have designs on cracking the top 20, the top 10, and even winning a major. Although he may not admit it.

After his most recent win, he said, “I’m doing everything pretty good, really happy. Really happy, but not really surprised after putting in all the hard work. I don’t have too many expectations on myself. I like to be a little more under the radar.”

So, who is the unseeded American? Tennis365 has dug a little deeper to answer that question.

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Michelsen was born in Aliso Viejo in the San Joaquin Hills of southern Orange County, California, on August 25, 2004. He has an older brother called Jake who is three years his senior.

He started playing tennis at the age of three, hitting backhands in his family’s garage. His father, Erik, played college tennis at the University of Redlands and his mother, Sondra, did the same at San Diego State University.

The latter earned the prestigious Arthur Ashe Award for Leadership and Sportsmanship in 1989. To this day, Sondra is his biggest tennis inspiration.

He told the ATP website, “She taught me how to play and I was hitting with her almost every day until I was 15 or 16. My earliest tennis memory was when I was four and it started raining and I was crying to her because I couldn’t play.”

Fast forward to 2022, Michelsen was a runner-up in the boys’ doubles category, with Daniel Vallejo, at the 2022 Australian Open. Later that season, he won the singles and doubles titles at the respected Easter Bowl – becoming the first American champion to achieve the feat since Donald Young in 2006.

In July, he and Sebastian Gorzny won the junior doubles title at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships and just as he was committed to play college tennis at the University of Georgia, he decided to turn professional instead.

On his Wimbledon success, he said, “Holding a Wimbledon trophy, even juniors, was super cool for me. I never thought that would happen. By far my favourite moment in tennis.”

Michelsen, whose tennis idol is Gael Monfils and his favourite athlete is Lionel Messi, won his first ITF Tour title in East Lansing in November 2022 at the age of 18, before claiming his inaugural Challenger crown at the Chicago Men’s Challenger the following July.

Tht same month, he was runner-up in his first ATP Tour final in Newport, where he lost to Adrian Mannarino in straight sets.

In 2024, Michelsen, who enjoys playing basketball and is a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers, claimed his first top 10 win by beating Alex de Minaur 6-4, 6-1 at Los Cabos in Mexico but his dream of a first ATP title was denied by compatriot Marcos Giron, who beat him in three sets at Newport.

Lorenzo Sonego then thrashed him 6-3, 6-0 in August 2024 in the Winston-Salem Open, as he still searches for his maiden ATP Tour title.

Prior to his US Open run, he had a career record of 89 wins and 82 losses and for the year, he was 23-17. His career prize money was just under $5million (£3.7m) but that will shoot up thanks to his exploits at Flushing Meadows.

Incidentally, on the Big T podcast, Brad Gilbert explained a unique trait of Michelsen’s.

“I watched Alex Michelsen play in 2023 at a $15k Futures in Malibu, he was ranked at about 650 in the world and I have been following him ever since,” he said.

“He’s a natural lefty that plays righty. He throws the ball lefty, he does everything lefty but plays righty. Especially as it would have made him a 6ft 4in lefty server, maybe that’s why his serve isn’t so big. But he’s got a great backhand which you use on the left hand.”

A certain Rafael Nadal was like that but in reverse. The Spaniard was a right-hander but played lefty and won 22 Grand Slams. What might have been for Michelsen…

On that, he told Talking Tennis this summer, “I played baseball when I was younger, so it’s kind of like a motion here. My parents tried to switch me to lefty when I was six and apparently I threatened to quit and my brother had just quit.

“So they’re like, ‘We’re not going to do that’. But probably one of the more poor life decisions I’ve made. I think being a lefty you get a lot of benefits. But I choked at six years old.”

Michelsen will hope his right hand, and his left, helps him beat Frances Tiafoe in their last eight clash at the US Open on Tuesday.

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