Watching Maxime Cressy play tennis can sometimes be a throwback to a time where racquets were made of wood and grass courts ruled the calendar: As he's soared up through the ranks, the 25-year-old Parisian-born American has brought the serve-and-volley back to relevance with him. In reality, though, it's more like a reboot. At 6-foot-6, Cressy is also a player that only tennis' modern era could produce: He can serve upwards of 130 mph, ranks third on the ATP tour this year in aces per match, and knows what it takes to go viral on Twitter.
Perfecting this marriage of eras in his game, Cressy says, is a work in progress, but it's nonetheless already earned some of his best results.
In the last 12 months, Cressy's cut more than 100 spots off his ATP ranking to a career-high No. 41 as this summer's US Open Series begins. He's reached the first two ATP singles finals of his career this year, finishing runner-up to Rafael Nadal at the Melbourne Summer Set ahead of the Australian Open in January and to Taylor Fritz on grass in Eastbourne the week before Wimbledon. In between? A six-match losing streak, and seven losses in total to players ranked beneath him.
Speaking to USOpen.org from Newport, R.I., where he's kicking off the Series as the No. 4 seed at the Infosys Hall of Fame Open this week, he says it's all been part of a learning curve that he's embraced.
"I've had a lot of ups and downs ... I had two, three, four months of very few wins, but it's made me stronger," he said. "I think it's partly because of the transition to the ATP environment and that it is much different than the Challenger environment. I feel there are just so many more factors that that can distract a player from performing at the highest level when you transition.
"I think I've been dealing with that very well ... and I think that's why I'm coming back so much stronger than ever before. I think the downs are not a bad thing at all, and I'm drawing a lot of positives from them."
Despite only playing his first tour-level qualifying draw three years ago, Cressy's 'ups' have already been world-class.
Last summer, he had his first major moment at the US Open in a five-set win over No. 9 seed Pablo Carreno Busta, where he came from two sets down and saved four match points. At January's Australian Open, he came to net a staggering 135 times in a four-set Round 4 defeat to eventual runner-up Daniil Medvedev, frustrating the future world No. 1 in Melbourne's midday heat. Last month on Wimbledon's No. 3 Court, he scored his first Top 10 win, in his fifth attempt overall and third this year, over Felix Auger-Aliassime in the first round.
Cressy says that dealing with increased attention, something that comes with big wins (or in some cases, even losses, like the one against Medvedev) in big stadiums, has been one of the biggest challenges he's faced as he seeks to establish himself as a full-time ATP player.
"On the court, that's the easy part for me," Cressy said. "It's pretty much off the court where I struggle a little bit with finding myself: where to be, where to hang out. I've adjusted so much better, and now I'm really much more comfortable in these tournaments, which is a great thing.
"The next step is obviously to win an ATP tournament, and to stay more composed in the finals and the last steps of a tournament. I've been struggling a lot with nerves in the last two finals, and I think that was partly because of a lack of experience. But I think with all the experiences I'm having, my confidence is really getting bigger, and I think that's going to help me get that first ATP title."
In an era in men's tennis where players are getting taller, serving harder, and grinding for hours at the baseline, Cressy stands out; he started serve-and-volleying at age 14, inspired by former US Open champions Pete Sampras, Pat Rafter and Stefan Edberg in his youth. But with legends only found in the archives and no active peer who shares his commitment to the playing style, Cressy says he's had to learn a lot on the fly.
Before going pro, Cressy played four years of college tennis at UCLA, and it was there that he first started honing a different skill that has served him well on tour: Six years ago, he started mediating, but he says he's only recently translated its benefits to his play on court, and found routines to also feel them off-court. (In 2019, Cressy and Keegan Smith won the NCAA national doubles title.)
"In college, it helped me a lot," he said, "especially in playing the big matches and in high-pressure situations, but I think I handle the pressure much better now that I did in college."
"I've made so many changes to my game in the last two years. It's a lot of trial and error, especially in my [style of] game," Cressy added. "I would say the biggest one is having key words that I use pretty often before my matches. Every morning when I medidate, I find key words that make me visualize my spots really well. I think that's enabled me to be so much more consistent throughout a match—having a reset button where, no matter the stage of the match, I'm able to refocus on the present."
Consistency is a buzzword for Cressy, and keeping that steadiness is a critical piece of a 10-year plan he hopes will bring his serve-and-volleying style to its full potential—and though he has long-term goals, staying present has been key to Cressy's success thus far.
"I've been working most of my hours on the first two shots of the game, and I think the consistency of my serve-and-volley has been really affecting my opponents mentally, or they feel that sense of powerlessness where they're not able to do anything about it," he said.
"Being consistent also comes from being consistent off the court with my routines, with the meditation, and staying hungry no matter how much success I'm getting. The serve-and-volley is definitely a style that has to be mastered mentally in order to be really strong with it. ... I feel very confident that I can be a dangerous player to anyone."
