MELBOURNE (Reuters) – American Alex Michelsen claimed the biggest win of his career when he stunned Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-5 6-3 2-6 6-4 in the first round of the Australian Open on Monday as the Greek 11th seed became the first major casualty at Melbourne Park.
Michelsen had beaten Tsitsipas at the Japan Open last year and the 20-year-old American kept his unbeaten record against Tsitsipas, a 2023 finalist at the Melbourne Grand Slam.
Mixing guile with finesse, Michelsen kept his cool under pressure on rallies and found success at the net as he went 2-0 up before Tsitsipas recovered to take the third set.
At 4-4 in the fourth, Michelsen hit a flurry of return winners to break Tsitsipas before serving out the match to set up a second-round tie against either Australian wildcard James McCabe or Spanish qualifier Martin Landaluce.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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