Adrian Mannarino's excellent summer, gets Newport win, Michelson has only positives



by VERONICA BRUNO

Adrian Mannarino's excellent summer, gets Newport win, Michelson has only positives

France’s Adrian Mannarino achieved his second grass ATP title at the Infosys Tennis Fame Open, with a straight sets victory over emerging tennis star Alex Michelson, 6-2, 6-4. It’s not like Michelson didn’t try, with the two players entertaining the Newport crowd with some pretty thrilling cross-court rallies that made the most of the Tennis Hall of Fame’s slick grass courts.

The uneven scoreboard didn’t really do the level of play justice, which was of a very high quality during many moments. “Tennis is a real mental game,” Mannarino said in his press conference afterwards. “Even if you’re missing but trying to go for winners, it’s giving some information to your opponent that you’re not going to choke and you’re going to take a little bit of a chance in some games”.

This was the second grass court final the 35-year-old Frenchman had reached this month.

Mannarino had lost in straight sets to the American breakout star of the season, Christopher Eubanks, at the beginning of July. When Michelson broke Mannarino in the second set, it looked as if the American was going to push the match into a three-setter.

However, the second seed Mannarino dug deep to quell any momentum that shifted towards the American underdog. “For a young player, who’s been doing so well in the last couple of weeks,” said Mannarino about Michelson’s success streak, where the 18-year-old won his first Challenger event last week, and followed up this breakthrough with his first ATP final.

“He was probably a little bit tight, I guess, and also exhausted because he’s been playing a lot. I just tried to just give him a hard time on court”. It’s been a positively satisfying grass season for Adrian Mannarino, who capped it off with a string of wins over higher ranked opponents, including third seed Taylor Fritz at Queen’s Club right before Wimbledon, and even more impressively, first seed Daniil Medvedev in the Round of 16 in Hertogenbosch.

Michelson an impressive presence on the tennis stage Perhaps nerves finally caught up with the American teenager Alex Michelson, but that doesn’t diminish what he accomplished these past few weeks. Hoping to become the youngest American to achieve an ATP title since Andy Roddick’s 2001 win at the Houston clay tournament, Michelson’s exciting run was stopped in its tracks by Mannarino, who maintained a calm control over the match.

“Adrian was playing really well and not missing a ton of shots, which made it hard for me,” said Michelson, speaking with the press after the match. Too many unforced errors allowed Mannarino to dictate play during the sets.

However, Michelson displayed moments of shot making brilliance that gave him the early break in the second. “A couple of double faults at 4-all that cost me the match,” explained Michelson. “Just the lack of focus, up 2-0 serving and that was that”.

Still, the American impressed with his fearless, bold play as well as a poised maturity. “It was a really good week. I got a ton of points,’’ said the unseeded player, who’s sure to climb the ATP rankings after the match.

“I was here on my own, trying to figure it out,” the California native said to the press. “I think I did pretty well. It was a very good week, very positive week, not too many negatives, for sure”. The form he displayed in Newport will certainly give Michelson a confidence boost heading into the hard court season.

The young player said that his big takeaway from Newport is that he “can hang with these [top] guys. I feel like my level’s there”. Alex Michelson just raised his profile over the summer and proved he’s one of the more exciting players to look out for this year.

Adrian Mannarino