‘I Don’t Put Any Limits On Myself’

Maxime Cressy is legendary for his distinctive serve-and-volley ways, an old-school model that stands out within the trendy sport. The Paris-born American additionally has a particular method to the psychological facet of the game, utilising a mindset that meshes together with his aggressive play.

“My mentality is certainly distinctive,” Cressy informed the ATP Tour in a current on-camera interview, crediting his volleyball-playing mom and his two older brothers for serving to develop his aggressive spirit. “I put loads of emphasis on what I can management, on my serve, on being essentially the most environment friendly serve-and-volley participant.

“That is what scares my opponents essentially the most, to be focussed on myself and never on them.”

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With full confidence in his method, the 25-year-old has by no means shied away from setting lofty targets. After remodeling himself from a “bench participant” at UCLA to certainly one of faculty tennis’ greatest, he sees no motive to not goal for the celebrities on the ATP Tour.

“My most important purpose is to be No. 1 and dominate the Tour,” stated Cressy, who reached a career-high Pepperstone ATP Rating of No. 31 final August. “I do not put any limits on myself and I have never till now. That is why I bought to this stage, and I consider that this mindset goes to hold me to much more success.”

He later added: “I can simply visualise who I wish to be and when. I’ve big religion in that goal-setting. I have been doing it each single 12 months for the previous 4, 5 years, and most of my objectives have been coming true.”

To succeed in his more and more formidable targets, Cressy is doubling down on what some would name a high-risk technique of all-out assault. However for him, there is no such thing as a different method.

“The massive issue mentally, I might say, is to turn out to be so used to taking part in a dangerous sport that it would not turn out to be dangerous in your notion,” he shared. “The important thing to achieve the following stage is to stay to my serve-and-volley sport, what’s working. I’ve performed the serve and volley and the large serve so many occasions that now it is simply pure and part of me. I do not contemplate my sport a dangerous sport at this time as a result of I am so used to it.”

Cressy gained 88.8 per cent of his service video games within the 2022 ATP Tour season, good for fifth on the leaderboard. However he broke serve in simply 13.2 per cent of return video games, putting him 76th on the Tour and offering a key alternative for progress. 

“I consider the following step is to essentially get my return sport stronger,” he stated. “I believe on the return I must have a special mindset, a mindset to make the opponent play extra and I must, like the highest gamers, make loads of balls in play. I consider I can do it.”

Maxime Cressy lifts his first ATP Tour title in Newport. Picture credit score: Andrew Eichenholz/ATP Tour

All of it got here collectively for the American final July in Newport, the place he gained his first ATP Tour title behind a trio of three-set wins in opposition to Steve Johnson, John Isner and Alexander Bublik. He defeated Bublik in a third-set tie-break to make his trophy breakthrough in his third tour-level remaining; only one month earlier, he misplaced a final-set tie-break to Taylor Fritz within the Eastbourne championship match.

“It was positively a really nerve-wracking expertise,” he stated of the Newport remaining, “particularly within the third set the place I stored pondering all alongside concerning the trophy and concerning the two missed finals.”

The title was a testomony to Cressy’s enhancing sport and mentality, and in addition served as the most recent instance of the facility of visualisation for the American.

“Newport was the primary title I had in thoughts, from a very long time in the past, from two, three years in the past,” he revealed. “I stored pondering to myself it might be so good and particular if Newport was my first title as a result of it was the primary ATP [event] I ever performed… I am glad I used to be in a position to get that title.”

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Stress is a continuing a part of life on the Tour, and it was ever-present for Cressy in his difficult run on the ATP 250. He copes with that stress by referring to phrases he writes in his journal, with one specifically standing out: “Instill doubt,” a directive that retains him focussed on the current and reminds him to take the match to his opponent.

“I put my religion in that phrase, and it has by no means let me down,” he defined. “I simply maintain repeating to myself this sentence in order that I do not get my thoughts distracted by different issues. I do know in a tennis match there’s loads of variables that may distract you. These two phrases are a key for me.”

There isn’t a doubting Cressy’s perception that he belongs on the very prime of the sport. After first breaking into the High 100 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in January 2022, the American is aiming far greater in 2023.

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from Tennis – ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/5AEXz9G