The 21st century
United States · born Paris, 1997 · right-handed · serve-and-volleyer and Newport champion 2022
All playersBack to the rankings
1
ATP singles title, Newport 2022, on grass
2
Grass finals in four weeks in 2022, Eastbourne and Newport
71%
Points won at the net in his Wimbledon 2022 win over sixth seed Félix Auger-Aliassime
4
Tiebreaks in his first-round defeat by Laslo Djere at Wimbledon 2023
31
Career-high ATP ranking, August 2022
Maxime Cressy was born in Paris in 1997 and grew up in France, playing on Sundays with his brothers Jonathan and Mathieu before moving to the United States. At UCLA he started out on the outside courts, worked his way to the top of the line-up and won the NCAA doubles title in 2019, the year he turned professional. He had switched from France to the United States late in 2018.
His serve-and-volley game took him into the top 50 in 2022. He reached his first ATP final in Melbourne in January, the fourth round of the Australian Open, the Eastbourne final in June and won the title at Newport in July, rising to No. 31 in August. He reached a further final at Montpellier in 2023 and won an ATP 500 doubles title in Dubai with Fabrice Martin.
From 2023 he played with severe lower back pain. After a last tour-level match in Washington in July 2024, he announced in July 2025 that he was stepping away to recover. As of November 2026 the ATP lists him as inactive.
| Newport 2022 | Seeded fourth, beat the four-time champion John Isner in the semi-finals and Alexander Bublik 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 in the final, coming back from a set and a break down. He fell and hurt his left knee before the last point of the third set and took an injury time-out before finishing the match |
|---|---|
| Eastbourne 2022 | Beat the top seed Cameron Norrie on the way to the final, then lost to Taylor Fritz 6-2, 6-7, 7-6 |
| Wimbledon 2022 | On his debut beat the sixth seed Félix Auger-Aliassime 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 7-6 in four hours and 10 minutes without losing serve, then lost in the second round to Jack Sock |
| Wimbledon 2023 | Lost in the first round to Laslo Djere 6-7, 7-6, 7-6, 7-6, one of seven men's singles matches at Wimbledon to reach a tiebreak in each of the first four sets |
| Newport, Rhode Island | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Men's singles Hall of Fame Open | |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. †single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
"In order for serve and volley to work you have to be very consistent and very resilient."
The person behind the player.
UCLA, 2016 to 2019
Cressy barely played at first in college. "I was not the one training on the bigger courts, on Courts 1, 2 or 3," he said. He rose to the top of the UCLA line-up and won the 2019 NCAA doubles title.
Source: ATP TourStyle
He described serve and volley as a matter of character: it "demands a lot of character" because a player has to resist "the whole tennis world trying to convince you that it's not the right way to play tennis."
Source: ATP TourWimbledon 2022
After four hours and 10 minutes on court, the beaten sixth seed Félix Auger-Aliassime said: "His serve was amazing. He took his chances when he needed to in important points. He was courageous, more than me, so he's deserving."
Source: Reuters, via The StarNewport, July 2022
Cressy, 6 ft 6 in, fell chasing a ball late in the final and hurt his knee. As he walked behind the umpire's chair before taking a time-out, Bublik shouted from the baseline: "Stop or continue. Make a decision." Some of the crowd booed, and then took up a chant of "Let's go Cressy!" as he closed out the title.
Source: The Boston GlobeJuly 2025
Announcing his break from the tour, he wrote: "Since 2023, I have had severe lower back pain but I played through it again and again."
Source: ATP TourFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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