WHAT HAPPENED: An injured No. 30 seed Maxime Cressy retired in his US Open opening round match against Hungarian Marton Fucsovics cutting short a tantalizing matchup between the two big men on Monday.
After two tense sets, Cressy physically faltered with an injury and the American dejectedly walked up to retire after dropping his serve at love to fall behind 5-1 in the third set.
Fucsovics advanced, 6-7(4), 7-5, 5-1, ret. to make it to the second round at Flushing Meadows for the second time, and first since 2020.
The 6-foot-6 Cressy appeared to be in control of the match after taking the opening set and serving for the second set at 5-4. He went up 30-0 but could not close out the game. The 6-foot-2 Hungarian battled back to break serve for the first time in the match.
In Cressy's next service next game, a double fault put him down a set point that he saved with a crisp backhand volley winner. But he dropped the next point and Fucsovics claimed the set with a dazzling running forehand passing shot winner down the line.
The third set was a disappointing finish to the nearly two hour and 30 minute tussle.
The 30-year-old Fucsovics was on target through the match with 13 aces, 14 net winners and 45 groundstroke winners.
WHAT IT MEANS: Up until Monday, it had been a big breakout year for the former UCLA star.
The 25-year-old reached a career high No. 31 in the world this month and won his first ATP title at Newport last month.
Cressy opened the year reaching the Melbourne final followed by a fourth round result at the Australian Open. He made the Eastbourne final on grass and then the second round at Wimbledon.
MATCH POINT: Hungary’s No. 1 player made the US Open third round in 2020. Can he do it again?
