It’s very simple. Alex Michelsen lost on Friday night in Antwerp to Arthur Fils, 6-4, 7-6, with a 14/12 tie-break in the second set. Fourteen points to twelve. I said it back in January. Not the exact score, right, but the spirit: that this lad would one day end up in an endless tie-break against a Frenchman. Check it. Well, don’t check word for word.
The rest of the week I read in the DH (a Belgian daily), at my desk in Uccle. Michelsen, 22, a quarter-finalist at the US Open this summer, slept at his coach’s place, Kristof Vliegen, ten minutes from the stadium. They have worked together for a year. He trained at his club. He beat David Goffin, who retired on Thursday. And he visited Brussels. He said, and I quote: “I went to see the fountain with the little boy who pees”. He plans to eat a waffle on Friday night or Saturday.
There you go. Me, in Kitzbühel, in ’92, I stayed with someone too. A hotelier, or his brother-in-law, the versions differ. And I lost a very long tie-break against a future top 10. In ninety percent of cases, and I’m being kind, the player who sleeps at a host’s place loses the tie-break once it goes past twelve. That’s exactly what I’ve been saying for years, nobody listens to me.
Careful, I’m not saying the opposite of what I said. I’m clarifying. Had he won that tie-break, I would have explained that the comfort of the Vliegen household gave him serenity. He lost it, which proves he was too comfortable. Both were foreseen. That’s what being a pundit is.
Michelsen said of Vliegen: “He’s an excellent coach.” Very good, but nobody offered me a room, and I know the Léopold club by heart.
Jean-Pol, in Kitzbühel did you play a tie-break, or watch one from the terrace?
I don’t answer terrace questions. Fils wins 14/12, Michelsen goes home to eat his waffle, and I’m still waiting for the call from Sporza, the Flemish public broadcaster. All right?
It’s true, we checked: DH Les Sports+.
