AMERICAN rising talent Alex Michelsen has caused a massive boilover at the Japan Open Tennis Championships, stunning fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in a come from behind Round of 32 victory. Michelsen won 4-6 6-1 6-2 in a dominant last two sets to secure the win in one hour and 48 mintues,

Tsitsipas – who has now won just one of his past five ATP Tour matches as well as once at the Laver Cup – is in a form slump since reaching the semi-finals of the Swiss Open back in July. A meek first round exit at the US Open mirrored that of his Canadian Masters exit in early August, and he bowed out in the second round at Cincinnati.

On the other hand, Michelsen – who had to defeat former Top 30 player Borna Coric in qualifying as top seed – reached the Winston-Salem Open final and a second round at Flushing Meadows before being humbled by eventual winner and world number one, Jannik Sinner.

In the pair’s first meeting, the 49th ranked Michelsen was forced to do it the hard way, coming back from a set down to post the three-set win. Tsitsipas played well through the opening set winning 71 per cent of his first serve points and breaking the American twice to take it out 6-4.

However the match completely turned from the second set onwards with Michelsen winning 16 of 19 points off his serve in the set, while Tsitsipas looked helpless with just seven of 17 off his serve to be broken twice.

It was not much better in the decider, as Michelsen won another 16 of 20 point, did not face a break point and capitalised off Tsitsipas’ serve twice. The Greek fourth seed won 10 of 21, was marginally better, but still not able to get near Michelsen’s consistency who was red hot.

The American will now take on fellow qualifier, Aussie Christopher O’Connell who defeated Argentinian Tomas Etcheverry in straight sets, 6-4 7-6. O’Connell flew the flag for Australia as the other Aussie in action – Alexei Popyrin – went down in a three-setter to Czech Tomas Machac.

The other major upset was Frenchman Arthur Fils taking out American Taylor Fritz in three sets with the latter coming off a heavy schedule that included the Laver Cup. Fils won 6-4 3-6 6-3 in two hours and three minutes to reach the second round. In-form Australian also stunned Norwegian Casper Ruud 7-6 6-1 in just under two hours.

In other results, Japanese wildcard Yoshihito Nishioka defeated Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime 7-6 3-7 7-6 in three hours and 12 minutes, while rising stars Brandon Nakashima and Ben Shelton took out compatriots Frances Tiafoe and Reilly Opelka respectively. Holger Rune, Jack Draper, Tommy Paul and Kei Nishikori were the other winners.

CHINA OPEN

Across in China, world number one Sinner continued his impressive ways in a fighting victory over Chilean Nicolas Jarry. The top seeded Italian backed up from his US Open victory by coming to Beijing and posting a 4-6 6-3 6-1 win over the 28th ranked South American. Jarry won their only previous meeting – on grass in 2022 – and while he pushed the world’s best player, ultimately Sinner proved too strong.

In other results, Russian qualifier Pavel Kotov defeated 19-year-old Chinese wildcard Yi Zhou in a come-from-behind win, 1-6 6-3 7-5, while French veteran Adrian Mannarino upset Italian Lorenzo Sonego 1-6 6-2 6-3 in just under two hours.

In the later matches, Flavio Cobolli also scored a win in three sets over Alexander Bublik 4-6 6-1 7-6, while Czech Jiri Lehecka defeated Spaniard Pedro Martinez in straight sets, and Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor rolled Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic, 6-7 6-4 6-3.