Yesterday Alex Michelsen beat Taylor Fritz 6-4, 7-6(6) in the Laguna Hills vs. Rancho Santa Fe desert derby.

In my mind, they play a similar style — but Fritz does everything just a bit better. So I was pleasantly surprised with the result.

Then I watched the highlights and it finally clicked. I understood what makes Michelsen so cali-burrito good:

His backhand is absolutely cracked

More specifically, his ability to hit every type of backhand is his superpower. And that's what I want to break down today.

Side note: this breakdown would greatly benefit from video clips. But because embedded clips = email goes to spam, I can’t. So I'd highly recommend watching the match highlights afterwards to get a better sense of what the heck I'm yapping on about.

Now let's get into the backhands.

Michelsen is unbelievable at absorbing big returns off of his shoelaces and hitting high quality +1 shots that get him to neutral — or better — in the rally.

Here's the skill: he softens his grip and massages the ball back up the middle with the perfect amount of pace. Hard enough that it's not attackable. Soft enough that he's not spraying errors trying to do too much off a 100 MPH ball.

The second layer is net clearance. He keeps it low — which forces his opponent to hit up on the next shot, even though they were salivating for a short, floating sitter to attack.

This backhand prevents him from having to play too much defense on serve, and helps him take time away from his opponents.

This one is my favorite.

Most players have full, long swings. You can clearly see the path — below the hips, across the body, over the shoulder. It's long and smooth. But Michelsen has this crazy ability to speed up his swing at the very last millisecond before contact, adding a ton of sting in just that quick burst of acceleration.

Think of a Messi free kick — incredibly powerful despite a short, compact technique. Or for the SoCcEr is BoRinG crowd, think of accidentally hitting the gas pedal and lurching forward.

The result: the ball comes back WAY faster than players expect after they've hit a great shot. That surprise throws them off enough to draw errors. Or at the very least, it forces a worse next shot than they were planning on.

Happened to Fritz a lot yesterday.

Still awake?

Last but not least, there's the normal rally ball. The 21 year old can hit it hard crosscourt, laser beam it line, or roll a short angle cross. And he'll never miss. Not until the cows come home.

Here's what I think is so cool about tennis. Michelsen's backhand doesn't look special. It's not Djokovic's, which will be in textbooks for decades. And it's not as hang-it-in-the-Louvre gorgeous as Wawrinka's.

But calling it just a backhand misses the point. It's actually three to five different shots, each dependent on what ball he's given — all of which he executes at a top .01% level. That versatility is the secret sauce. It's what makes Michelsen so darn-tootin good.

Who’s the last WTA player to win back to back Indian Wells singles titles?

A. Maria Sharapova

B. Iga Swiatek

C. Martina Navratilova

D. Steffi Graf

Find out at the bottom!

Some of the best tennis content I found on the internet this week…

💍 How Alex De Minaur proposed to Katie Boulter

👎 The worst coaching advice Sabalenka, Zverev, Osaka and more have ever gotten

☀ What the conditions are actually like at Indian Wells, and how it can drastically change in the night time

C. Martina Navratilova

Which means that no WTA player has successfully defended their Indian Wells singles title since 1991. And since Mirra Andreeva lost today, it’ll be at least two years until it happens again!

Throwback to Indian Wells last year when Sabalenka held up a publication that featured my writing!