Meet American Tennis Player Maxime Cressy
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Maxime Cressy won his first-ever ATP Tour title this past weekend at the Hall of Fame Open in Newport, Rhode Island. This win helped him achieve a career-high ranking of 33, and Cressy's star is just beginning to rise in the tennis world.
Read on for everything you need to know about the tennis star.
He was born in Paris, France.
Cressy was born in Paris in May 1997. He started playing tennis at age 4, and at age 12, started training with the French federation at CREPS PACA – Saint Raphaël-Boulouris, a prominent tennis training center.
According to his player bio, his idol growing up was Pete Sampras. At first, Cressy represented France in international competition. However, in 2018, he decided to switch his nationality to represent the United States.
"To be a citizen of both worlds is incredibly special, and it shaped me. I became so much more independent by going to the States on my own. I had that belief that I could live the American dream, that my life could be much better, because my tennis game was suffering then. I thought that going to the States could give me a fresh start, and that is what it has done," he said recently.
He played for UCLA in college.
He was recruited to UCLA, a top tennis program in the U.S. College athletics is in his blood: His mom, Leslie, played volleyball at USC and helped the team win two NCAA championships. Winning, it seems, also runs in the family. In his time as a Bruin, he was an NCAA doubles champion in 2019.
👏 National Champions! 👏
No. 2 Maxime Cressy & Keegan Smith get it done for @uclatennis! pic.twitter.com/SXbozKzjpi— NCAA Tennis (@NCAATennis) May 25, 2019
"Being recruited at U.C.L.A. was the most incredible thing that happened to me, and as soon as that happened, my desire went through the roof," Cressy told the ATP Tour. "At the beginning I didn’t have any professional aspirations, but that quickly changed when I became an integral part of the team. Starting my junior year, that’s when I started to think about going pro, and being with players like Mackenzie McDonald and Marcos Giron on the team also helped those professional aspirations."
Notably, at UCLA, he majored in math.
His favorite surface is grass.
Cressy's first-ever ATP title came on the only grass court tournament in North America, at the Hall of Fame Open in Newport, Rhode Island. He defeated Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3). "I think it’s the most incredible feeling that I’ve had in my entire life. It’s difficult to describe. I’ve been looking forward to that first title for a very long time," he said after his win.
He's made it to finals before; earlier in the summer, he lost to fellow American Taylor Fritz in the Eastbourne International finals.
He plays with a serve-and-volley style, well suited to grass surfaces.
Cressy is very tall.
The ATP Tour lists him as 6'6", and his college profile listed him at 6'7". Either way: he's an extremely tall guy.
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