“Playing him was beyond belief” Maxime Cressy recalls being star-struck when he played against Rafael Nadal
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Maxime Cressy and Rafael Nadal
Maxime Cressy is a French-American professional tennis player. He has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 33 by the ATP which he achieved after winning the 2022 Hall of Fame Open in Rhode Island. He has been ranked as high as world No. 180 in doubles, achieved on November 18, 2019. Cressy has won three singles titles and two doubles titles on the ATP Challenger Tour. Before 2018, he played for his country of birth, France.
The 25-year-old American won his first ATP tour title at the 2022 Hall of Fame by beating Alexander Bublik in the finals in 3-sets. Cressy lost the first set in which the Kazakh dominated over him but later he made a comeback in the 2nd set to square the match and then finished off in his favour after a tiebreaker in the third set to clinch his first ever ATP title.
“It was more like, is it actually happening?” Maxime Cressy when he was asked to describe his match against Rafael Nadal
Cressy had played Rafael Nadal in Melbourne in 2022 when the Spaniard won against the American in two straight sets in which the first one was decided after a tiebreaker and the second set’s scorecard stood at six games to three in favour of Rafa in the finals of the 2022 Melbourne Summer Set 1.
After his remarkable triumph in Rhode Island, the ATP Tour caught up with the American as he reflected on the latest milestone in his rapid rise, where he was asked, “How did your experience in previous finals against Rafael Nadal and Taylor Fritz prepare you for this match?”
to which he replied, “Those matches were also nerve-wracking, just like today! Playing Nadal was beyond belief, it was more like, ‘Is it happening?’ I think that was one reason I wasn’t able to beat him. Against Fritz, it was close margins as well.”
The Hall of Fame Open champion also described his match against his countryman, Taylor Fritz as, ‘one of the two most nerve-wracking matches’. He has played Fritz only once with Fritz winning the match 6-2, 6-7, 7-6 on the grass court in Eastbourne Great Britain which was a close match between the Americans.
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