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Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 32
Alex Michelsen vs Daniel Merida — 7-6(5) 6-4 6-3
 Alex Michelsen✓ | 7 | 6 | 6 |
 Daniel Merida | 65 | 4 | 3 |
Final · Friday, September 4, 2026 · Round of 32
Result
Mérida had the first break point of the match, in the fifth game, and Michelsen saved it; when the Spaniard did break later in the set Michelsen broke straight back, and the tiebreak went 7-5. That was the pattern. Mérida made an early inroad in the second and could not convert; after six level games Michelsen broke, saved two break points in the game that followed to lead 5-3, and took the set with four straight points. Mérida dropped serve immediately in the third and it went quickly from there. The error columns tell it plainly: fourteen unforced errors from Michelsen across three sets and one double fault, against thirty-six and seven. Mérida hit more winners, forty to thirty-four, and lost anyway. It is Michelsen's first US Open fourth round — the 22-year-old had never been past the second round here — and it ends a first US Open main draw for Mérida, who is 21 and has climbed from outside the top 400 to No. 39 in two years. Michelsen plays Tomás Martín Etcheverry, in the section Novak Djokovic vacated in the first round.
Alex MichelsenRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
At this Stage
The Round of 32 is the third round, and the last one before a Grand Slam draw becomes a small tournament: sixteen men's matches across Friday and Saturday leave sixteen players standing, every one of them having won twice on these courts. This is the round where the seeding chart stops doing any work — from here on, whoever is left is who you play.
Alex Michelsen✓Daniel MeridaRound of 64
Round of 32
What we know now
Court: Stadium 17
Match length: 2:09
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.
The tightest match in the men's third round, between two players who have never been this far here and who have split their two meetings this year. Michelsen, 22 and ranked 46th, has not dropped a set: 6-4 6-1 6-0 over Federico Cina, then 6-3 6-4 6-4 over Brandon Nakashima, who had himself conceded three games in the first round. Merida, 21 and ranked 39th, is playing his first US Open at all and has just produced the biggest win of his career, coming from a set down to beat the 23rd seed Andrey Rublev 6-7(3) 6-2 6-4 6-4 and conceding one break of serve all afternoon. He started the year ranked 163rd. Their two meetings are eight months and a continent apart — Michelsen 6-3 6-4 in the Indian Wells first round in March, Merida 6-4 6-7(4) 6-1 in Toronto in August — and the more recent one belongs to Merida. What separates them is sample size: Michelsen is 73-54 on hard courts for his career, Merida 13-10. On the evidence of the last month, that gap is closing fast.
The case for Alex Michelsen
52% to winMichelsen has not lost a set and has beaten the better opponent: Nakashima had dropped three games in his own first round and won four in the whole match against Michelsen. He is 73-54 on hard courts against Merida's 13-10, and he won their first meeting this year in straight sets. He is also the taller man and the bigger server, and the third round of a major is the point at which a first-time main-draw player usually finds out what one costs.
The case for Daniel Merida
48% to winMerida has just beaten a top-25 seed from a set down, in four sets, having gone from 163rd in the world to 39th inside eight months — a rate of improvement nobody else in this section can match. He beat Michelsen in Toronto three weeks ago. He is 30-14 for the season against Michelsen's 24-18, and he has conceded a single break of serve across two matches in New York.
Both cases written 2026-09-02, 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
“Six sets won, none lost, against the better of the two second-round opponents; Merida's month is the loudest argument against it.”
Locked 2026-09-02 23:55 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Alex MichelsenDaniel MeridaPlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-09-04.
Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-09-02.
Storylines
- Neither man has reached a Grand Slam fourth round; Merida is playing his first US Open.
- Michelsen has not dropped a set, beating Federico Cina and then Brandon Nakashima in straights.
- Merida beat the 23rd seed Andrey Rublev 6-7(3) 6-2 6-4 6-4, conceding one break of serve.
- Merida began the season ranked 163rd and is 39th now.
- They split two hard-court meetings this year, Merida taking the more recent in Toronto in August.
Head to head
One each, both this year and both on hard courts: Michelsen 6-3 6-4 in the Indian Wells first round in March, Merida 6-4 6-7(4) 6-1 in the Canadian Masters second round in August.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-09-02.
Court & schedule: Stadium 17, Friday 4 September. 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 2026-09-03)
Weather: Sunday — the men's final, and the last match of the fortnight — is 78°F with showers and thunderstorms 95% likely, the wettest day of the two weeks and the one day that cannot be pushed back. Ashe closes its roof and plays on. It clears overnight: 20% Sunday night, 20% Monday, then dry and sunny from Tuesday. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-09-13)
Venue: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, New York — hard.