Michelsen Blindsides Nakashima in All-American US Open Shocker
World No. 46 Alex Michelsen dismantled No. 16 seed and tour-hottest hard-courter Brandon Nakashima 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, crashing the summer's breakout American story and inheriting the draw quadrant Novak Djokovic vacated.
Alex Michelsen had circled this matchup for weeks, and on Wednesday night at the US Open he delivered on it. The 22-year-old Californian, ranked No. 46, dismantled No. 16 seed Brandon Nakashima 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 in a second-round meeting of rising Americans, ending Nakashima's best summer on tour and reaching his first career third round at Flushing Meadows.
Nakashima arrived in New York as arguably the form player in men's tennis, having racked up a 23-9 hard-court record in 2026 with finals in Brisbane and a semifinal run at the Cincinnati Masters. None of it carried over. Michelsen broke serve at the top of every set, held firm on his own delivery, and never let his fellow Southern Californian find rhythm on either wing.
"It feels great to beat a guy like him. He's beaten so many good players this summer," Michelsen said afterward, crediting practice-court scouting for a read on Nakashima's service patterns that he leaned on all night. Nakashima was blunt about his own performance: "That wasn't close to the level that I can play at," he said, adding there had been "a lot of new experiences for me, with maybe a little bit more added pressure" as a seeded player at a major for the first time.
A draw wide open
The win is more than a résumé line. With No. 16 Nakashima out and defending champion Djokovic already eliminated in the first round, Michelsen now sits in a bottom-half quarter with several marquee names cleared from his path to a second-week breakthrough. He'll face Spain's Daniel Merida, an unseeded player who upset No. 23 seed Andrey Rublev in four sets, in the third round — a match Michelsen enters as the clear favorite on paper for the first time in his young Grand Slam career.
It capped a night at Flushing Meadows that also saw defending champion Carlos Alcaraz labor past Jaime Faria in four sets and Ben Shelton survive a four-set battle with unseeded Hubert Hurkacz, underscoring how unpredictable this year's draw has already proven through its first three rounds. Full official US Open results and bracket are updated live on the tournament's site.
Play resumes Thursday with third-round matches across both draws as the tournament heads toward its second week. Michelsen's clash with Merida is expected to be scheduled for Friday or Saturday at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.