{"id":314927,"date":"2025-08-03T15:57:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T15:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/314927\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T15:57:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T15:57:12","slug":"coco-gauffs-former-coach-compared-alex-michelsen-to-andy-murray-in-2023-while-pinpointing-an-area-that-is-world-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/314927\/","title":{"rendered":"Coco Gauff\u2019s former coach compared Alex Michelsen to Andy Murray in 2023 while pinpointing an area that is \u2018world-class\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alex Michelsen has stunned his peers by reaching the Canadian Open quarter-finals.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The young American was quick to dispatch his good friend and compatriot Learner Tien in the Canadian Open round of 16.<\/p>\n

Michelsen forms part of the male American tennis player contingent looking to upset the dominance of Europeans since the retirement of Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and Andy Roddick<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While American women have certainly lived up to expectations, with the likes of Coco Gauff<\/a> setting the standard, American men have struggled for the most part.<\/p>\n

No American man has won a Grand Slam singles title<\/a> since Andy Roddick at the 2003 US Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"AlexPhoto by Julian Avram\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n

However, the likes of Ben Shelton<\/a>, Taylor Fritz and Michelsen are hoping to break that unwanted streak in the next few years, all while disrupting the impending dominance of Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> and Jannik Sinner.<\/p>\n

One former coach of Coco Gauff weighed in on an 18-year-old Alex Michelsen in 2023, comparing his game to that of Andy Murray\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Brad Gilbert said Alex Michelsen has a \u2018world-class\u2019 backhand<\/p>\n

Brad Gilbert is an esteemed figure within tennis. The long-time coach has worked with some of the greatest players in history, including the likes of Andre Agassi, Andy Murray<\/a> and Coco Gauff.<\/p>\n

Back in 2023, the former professional who reached number four in the world in singles, spoke highly of a young Alex Michelsen in 2023.<\/p>\n

Michelsen has just reached his first ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final after victory over Tien. He had already shocked the competition in the round previous, defeating French Open semi-finalist Lorenzo Musetti in three sets.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the ATP Tour in 2023, Gilbert said<\/a>: \u201cHis two strengths are that he moves incredibly for 6\u20194\u2033 and he knows how to defend, kind of like a Murray skill, or a Brooksby. But he\u2019s even faster than Brooksby.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BradPhoto by Matthew Stockman\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not getting wild cards every week. He\u2019s just winning matches. He knows how to win matches and his biggest strengths are he knows how to move and defend.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he\u2019s got a world-class backhand already. I mean, an elite backhand and then you know what else? He\u2019s a legit 6\u20194\u2033. I would assume he\u2019ll be 6\u20196\u2033 because I\u2019ve met his parents. His parents are big. Both of his parents played D1 tennis. I will be surprised if he\u2019s not at least another two inches taller.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he returns tremendously. I think that\u2019s maybe most surprising about him is how well he returns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Michelsen says his serve was \u2018money\u2019 against Learner Tien<\/p>\n

In an interview<\/a> with the Tennis Channel following his victory over Tien, Michelsen pinpointed an area of his game that was a particular strength throughout the match.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old defeated Tien 6-3 6-3 and has set up a meeting with Karen Khachanov in the quarter-finals. The Russian also defeated his round of 16 opponent, Casper Ruud, in straight sets.<\/p>\n

When asked if his \u2018bigger game\u2019 was the difference on the faster US hard courts, Michelsen said: \u201cYeah I feel like my serve\u2026 I served really, really well. I felt like I was in a lot of his service games, if I wasn\u2019t breaking I was getting to 30 or deuce almost every time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got broken once, I had 40-15, that was a little unfortunate. But yeah, the serve today was really money for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Michelsen has stunned his peers by reaching the Canadian Open quarter-finals. The young American was quick to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[86168,5233,79963,114735,66689,6740,79,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-314927","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-alex-michelsen","9":"tag-andy-murray","10":"tag-atp-tennis-players","11":"tag-brad-gilbert","12":"tag-canadian-open","13":"tag-coco-gauff","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-tennis","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114965659376962670","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}