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Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 128
Alex Michelsen vs Federico Cina — 6-4 6-1 6-0
 Alex Michelsen✓ | 6 | 6 | 6 |
 Federico Cina | 4 | 1 | 0 |
Final · Monday, August 31, 2026 · Round of 128
Result
Rain stopped this one on Sunday night at 6-4, 1-1, and when it resumed on Monday the 19-year-old qualifier from Palermo did not win another game — eleven in a row to Michelsen, who broke six times from fifteen chances while Cina converted none of his six, three of them in the first game back. Michelsen's own serve was patchy, eight double faults and 54% first serves in, and it did not matter: 102 points to 71 in two hours of play. "I have to have the strength to fight," Cina said afterwards, "because this year I've lost a few matches like this, where I can't fight the way I wanted and I let myself go a bit."
Alex MichelsenRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
At this Stage
The Round of 128 is the widest the net ever gets: 64 matches a draw, spread across three days, every seed in action and every qualifier playing the biggest match of the year. This half of the bracket filled in late — qualifying ran a day long after rain pushed the last round to Friday, so these names were still blank slots on draw night. First-round losers leave with $140,000. The winner draws Nakashima or Báez in the Round of 64.
What we know now
Court: Stadium 17
Match length: 2:00
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
What I said beforehand
The preview, frozen before the first serve. Clearly dated, never rewritten — that's the deal that makes the pick worth anything.
Michelsen is 22, ranked 45th, 23–17 this season with a 72–53 hard record; Cina is a 19-year-old Italian qualifier ranked 181st whose tour-level hard-court record is 3–4. Both are prospects, but one of them is three years further along and playing at home. Stadium 17 on Sunday. Michelsen in three.
The case for Alex Michelsen
86% to winRanked 136 places higher with a 72–53 career hard-court record against a 3–4 one, in front of an American crowd. Michelsen's flat ball-striking is well suited to these courts and he has a US Open second round behind him.
The case for Federico Cina
14% to winCina is 19 and has just won three qualifying matches here; teenagers who qualify at majors are usually about to be worth watching. Michelsen has never played him, and 23–17 is a good season rather than an intimidating one.
Both cases written 2026-08-29, before the first ball — frozen into the record exactly as written, whatever the result. The percentages are mine — opinions with a percent sign on. They add to 100 because tennis has no draw to hide the rounding in.
My locked pick: Alex Michelsen to advance ✓ RIGHT
“A 72–53 hard-court record against a 3–4 one, and home support on Stadium 17.”
Locked 2026-08-29 01:40 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Alex MichelsenFederico CinaPlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-08-28.
Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-28.
Storylines
- Cina, 19, is the youngest man in the men's singles main draw and playing his first US Open.
- Michelsen's tour-level hard-court record is 72–53; Cina's is 3–4.
- Both are 20-something-or-younger prospects — the kind of first round that gets revisited in five years.
Head to head
They have never met.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-28.
Court & schedule: Stadium 17, Monday 31 August. The US Open posts each day's order of play the evening before; this one is on the board. (Official US Open order of play, as of 2026-08-30)
Weather: Sunday — the men's final, and the last match of the fortnight — was forecast at 78°F with showers and thunderstorms 95% likely, the wettest day of the two weeks and the one day that could not be pushed back. The rain came in the morning and stopped before the final, which Ashe played with its roof open. It cleared from there: 15% overnight, 15% Monday, then dry and sunny. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-09-13)
Venue: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, New York — hard.