Maxime Cressy vividly remembers playing tennis on Sundays as a boy in France with his brothers Jonathan and Mathieu. When they were ready to leave the club, Maxime wanted to continue playing.

“I would always tell them, ‘One more ball, one more ball.’ That one more ball would turn out to be two more hours of playing tennis,” Cressy told ATPTour.com. “Over time they got sick of tennis because of me, because I was always demanding their time. With my brothers I was very competitive and wanted to be better than them. They grew tired of it!”

Jonathan and Mathieu are certainly proud of what their brother has become: one of the most dangerous players on the ATP Tour. On Tuesday, he will try to prove that against sixth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime in the first round of Wimbledon.

The American is a scary foe, especially on grass, because of his throwback serve-and-volley game. On his day, the 6’6” righty takes the racquet out of his opponents’ hands. There is little they can do about a perfectly placed serve and a crisp volley into the open court. But if you ask Cressy what he wants fans to remember him for, it is not his unique game.

“I would want people to know me for my character, that I have resiliency. When things become difficult, I never give up. I always find a way,” Cressy said. “I’m the kind of person that will do anything in his power to find a solution towards where I want to be.”

Cressy’s game speaks for itself. It’s in your face every point. The 25-year-old is going to come at you. What will you do to counter it? Although that is the product of countless hours of practice and fine-tuning, it is more so the result of Cressy’s mindset.

“[It] is more a matter of mindset than the serve and volley in itself. I think my serve and volley game would not be as efficient if my mindset was not on point,” Cressy said. “In order for serve and volley to work you have to be very consistent and very resilient in the face of the whole tennis world trying to convince you that it’s not the right way to play tennis. It demands a lot of character.”

Cressy reads notes in a journal during changeovers to stay present and maintain his focus. But it goes far beyond that. When the American was about 16, he began to learn about spirituality.

His father’s friend was a huge fan of Paramahansa Yogonanda, who in 1946 published the book Autobiography of a Yogi. Cressy decided to read it and then began to dig deeper into spirituality, reading Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now among other books.

“I then started to do a lot of visualisation about the goals I wanted to achieve. Before I didn’t know what I wanted, but with spirituality I started to ask myself what I wanted and then my biggest wish was to make a huge impact on the professional tour. That was my dream,” Cressy said. “I think everyone’s dream is to be No. 1, but I wanted to make that dream a reality.”

It was not always an easy path for Cressy, who spent most of his childhood in France before moving to the United States, where he played college tennis at UCLA, where at one point fellow Top 100 player Mackenzie McDonald was his roommate and Marcos Giron was a volunteer assistant coach. He barely played in his early days on the team.

“I was not the one training on the bigger courts, on Courts 1, 2 or 3. I was more on Courts 5 or 6 at the end playing in the back courts,” Cressy said. “I always had that determination to get to the top part of the lineup. Even though at the beginning I wasn’t considered a top player, I really wanted to get there. The fire within me was always there.

^{Cressy poses with Marcos Giron and Mackenzie McDonald, also former UCLA Bruins, earlier this year at Indian Wells.}
“I felt like it had to work and that the way would be carved out for me. But the key for me was each time I lost a match or each time I encountered challenges, I always asked myself, ‘Alright, what do I need to do improve? What do I need to do in order to get to the next level?’”

Cressy eventually climbed to the top spot in his team’s lineup and won the NCAA Doubles Championship in 2019. But ascending the Pepperstone ATP Rankings is not easy.

This time last year, Cressy was World No. 153. Now he is at a career-high World No. 45 after reaching his second ATP Tour final last week in Eastbourne. In January at an ATP 250 in Melbourne, the American made his maiden championship match and tested Rafael Nadal in a tight two-set final. No player inside the Top 50 has soared more spots this year than Cressy.

When the Paris native turned professional, his goal was to compete in ATP Tour events as soon as possible. Now, he admitted his goals are “getting much more ambitious”. But the process remains the same.

Cressy is a big believer in routines and repetition. For example, he reads a lot. Instead of trying different genres or authors, the American reads the same book — Ask and It Is Given by Abraham Hicks — every day in order to follow one voice and not get pulled in different directions by different writers’ voices.

One passage in the book that sticks out features an analogy about trees. Cressy paraphrased it: “Our limiting beliefs are the trees on our way. The stronger our desire, the more ambitious we are, the higher the speed of our car going on the road. The limiting beliefs are trees on the road and when you encounter a lot of resistance, a lot of problems, that’s when you’re running into trees.

“Life is about figuring out how to get the trees out of the way and keep going instead of slowing down the vehicle so that the crash with the trees is not as powerful. The lesson is to find a way to get rid of the trees and the limiting beliefs that are stopping us from moving forward.”

According to Cressy, one of those limiting beliefs is that serve and volley is not going to be as efficient in today’s game. He believes it is not true. The same way as a boy he thought he would eventually defeat his brothers and later that he would climb his college team’s lineup, Cressy will do everything in his power to prove it, no matter how many hurdles he faces.

“I think to have the belief and to actually live it is different,” Cressy said. “But to actually live it is an incredible experience, to really see that it actually disrupts the game of the best players in the world is amazing.”

There are few players who understand what Andy Murray has been through to return to the tennis court and compete at the highest level, but James Duckworth, who in January underwent hip surgery, is one of them. Although the resilient Australian put up a fight on Monday evening, it was the two-time Wimbledon champion who clawed into the second round.

After a slow start on Centre Court, Murray rallied past Duckworth 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 to advance at Wimbledon. The Scot will next play 20th seed John Isner, against whom he owns an 8-0 ATP Head2Head record.

“It was amazing to be back out here again with a full crowd,” Murray said in his on-court interview. “Amazing atmosphere. Obviously I’m getting on a bit now, so I don’t know how many more opportunities I [will] get to play on this court, so I want to make the most of every time I get to come out here now. Glad I managed to get through it and hopefully get another match on here in a couple of days.”

Murray has made slow, but steady progress since undergoing his second right hip surgery in 2019. Earlier this month, he returned for a week to the Top 50 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time since the week of 28 May 2018. The 35-year-old has shown good form, however, advancing to the final in Stuttgart, where he defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas and Nick Kyrgios.

That is why it was a surprise when Duckworth surged to a one-set lead behind fearless tennis. The Australian in January underwent a hip operation — his ninth surgery — and arrived at the All England Club with an 0-7 tour-level record this season.

But once Murray found rhythm in the match and combined his counter-punching with timely moves forward, he seemed to have the match in hand. The Scot hit 15 aces and won 85 per cent of his first-serve points in his two-hour, 43-minute win, but also showed his variety in cat-and-mouse points, even throwing in an underarm serve.

“I thought I did well to rebound after the first set. He likes playing on the grass. He’s come back from a hip surgery himself in January and was playing very well,” Murray said. “Once I started to find my returns a little bit more as the match went on, I felt a bit more comfortable. Did well to get through it.”

Tournament organisers closed the roof after the third set to allow the pair to complete the match with darkness rolling in. The set was even for the most part with both men taking care of their serve until 4-4.

Duckworth saved the first break point he faced with an aggressive backhand. But the World No. 74 dumped a double fault into the net to hand Murray the decisive advantage. The former World No. 1 did not relinquish his opportunity. The match came to an anticlimactic ending on an incorrect Duckworth challenge, but Murray showed how much it meant with several fist pumps and a big roar.

Rafael Nadal will play at Wimbledon for the first time since 2019 Tuesday on Centre Court, while Stefanos Tsitsipas and Matteo Berrettini headline the men’s singles action on Court 1. The complete bottom half of the draw is set for first-round action on the London lawns, with Felix Auger-Aliassime, Taylor Fritz, Diego Schwartzman, Denis Shapovalov, and #NextGenATP stars Holger Rune, Lorenzo Musetti and Jack Draper also in action. 

Top-half matches that were not completed on a rainy Monday will also be played.

ATPTour.com looks at some of the matches to watch on Day 2 at the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

View Schedule | View Singles Draw

[2] Rafael Nadal (ESP) vs. Francisco Cerundolo (ARG)

Nadal’s stellar start to the 2022 season has put him in a new position at Wimbledon. For the first time, the Spaniard enters London half-way to the Grand Slam — winning all four majors in the same season. Nadal brings a 30-3 season record into the event, with four tour-level titles in tow.

“In general terms it has been an amazing, positive six months in terms of tennis results,” he said Saturday in his pre-tournament press conference. “I enjoy it because it has been unexpected. But now is the moment to keep going, if I am able to be better with my body. The main thing for me is to keep enjoying my daily work and my day-by-day playing tennis.”

While the 36-year-old does not want his physical health to be a focus during the tournament, he did give a positive report on that front before opening his campaign. A new treatment on his chronic foot injury has provided relief from pain both on the court and in his daily life.

“Quite happy about how things have evolved,” he said. “Since the last two weeks, I didn’t have not one of these terrible days that I can’t move at all.”

Like Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz — both first-round winners on Monday — Nadal did not play any grass-court events in the build-up to Wimbledon. But he is no stranger to the surface — the 2008 and 2010 Wimbledon champion is making his 15th appearance at the major.

“Happy to be here,” he told the press. “Enjoying playing on grass after such a long time. [It is] always a challenge, the transition.

“Comparing to other surfaces, you have to think a little bit more under control in terms of knowing what can happen. Every single time you go on court, you can lose, you can win. It’s a little bit more predictable when you have the history in the weeks before.”

Nadal also lacks any history against World No. 41 Francisco Cerundolo, who is among the highest-ranked men in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings he could have drawn in the opening round. The 23-year-old Argentine enjoyed a breakout run to the semi-finals of the Miami Open presented by Itau in March and also reached the Rio de Janeiro semi-finals in February.

Entering Wimbledon at a career-high in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Cerundolo picked up one grass-court win in two events in Great Britain prior to Wimbledon. He defeated Spain’s Pedro Martinez at The Queen’s Club in London before losing to home favourite Ryan Peniston, and dropped a three-set decision to American Tommy Paul last week in Eastbourne.

[4] Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) vs. [Q] Alexander Ritschard (SUI)

In stark contrast to Nadal, Tsitsipas played three grass-court events in the last month, saving his best for last. After defeats to Andy Murray (Stuttgart) and Nick Kyrgios (Queen’s Club), the Greek went all the way in Mallorca. He claimed his maiden grass title by beating Roberto Bautista Agut in a third-set tie-break in the final of the ATP 250 event.

“I think my preparations are good in terms of matches,” he told the media on Sunday. “That’s what I wanted from the very beginning, to have a lot of matches on grass. That’s what I think I achieved in the last couple of weeks, to get as many matches on grass as possible.

“I think the first tournaments probably not were what I expected in terms of matches, but I managed to pick up quite fast in last week’s performance in southern Europe.”

Tsitsipas holds a 3-4 record at Wimbledon, his 2018 fourth-round run his only trip beyond the opening round. But he has never doubted his ability on the grass, where he now has a 14-10 overall record.

“People kind of doubted that I can play on grass, I think it’s fair to say. I never doubted myself. I said — I insisted, in fact — that I can play on this surface, and it remains one of my favourite surfaces that tennis has to offer. I was pretty confident about it… I like playing on grass, probably more than on clay.”

The fourth seed is widely regarded as one of the game’s best clay-courters, so that statement is not one to be taken lightly. Last season, he reached the Roland Garros final then lost to Frances Tiafoe two weeks later in his first grass-court match of the year at Wimbledon. Analysing that defeat, Tsitsipas felt he did not adapt to the new surface and instead continued playing as he did on the clay.

This year, he’s fine-tuned his grass-court tactics.

“I love playing on these courts,” he said. “I love the serve-and-volley game, coming in as much as I can, slicing, attacking. This feels right.”

Tsitsipas has yet to face World No. 188 Alexander Ritschard, who won a pair of three-setters to qualify. The 28-year-old is at a career-high in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings and will be playing the first tour-level match of his career on Tuesday. A run to the final of an ATP Challenger Tour event in Forli, Italy, in February is his best result of the 2022 season; he lost to Great Britain’s Jack Draper in a third-set tie-break in title match.

[8] Matteo Berrettini (ITA) vs. Cristian Garin (CHI)

Berrettini’s flashed his grass-court credentials with two June titles on the surface. After winning at Stuttgart and The Queen’s Club, the Italian enters Wimbledon on a nine-match winning streak. He has won three of his past four grass events, dating back to his 2021 Queen’s Club title, with his only defeat coming against Djokovic in last year’s four-set Wimbledon final.

The Italian missed the clay-court season after a minor operation on his right-hand but has not lost a match since his return.

“The last thing I expected was to come back from surgery and win two titles in a row,” Berrettini said after retaining his Queen’s Club crown. “I arrived in Stuttgart and was not feeling great. I was not hitting the ball how I wanted and I was like, ‘Guys, I think it is going to be tough.’ But it has gone pretty well.”

The Italian leads Garin 2-1 in their ATP Head2Head, though Tuesday’s contest will be the pair’s first meeting on grass. Two of their three meetings went the distance, with Berrettini winning their most recent meeting, a three-set quarter-final at the 2021 Mutua Madrid Open.

Chile’s Garin reached the Wimbledon fourth round last year, following up a run to the same stage at Roland Garros. Those two results are his best at the Grand Slam level and helped him reach a career-high of No. 17 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings last September.

After a slow start the the 2022 season, the Chilean reached the Houston semi-finals and the Rome quarter-finals before advancing to the the third round at Roland Garros. But he is 0-2 on the grass after falling to Sebastian Korda in Halle and Alex de Minaur in Eastbourne.

Also In Action

Sixth seed Auger-Aliassime faces a tough opening test against American Maxime Cressy, who advanced to his second tour-level final last week in Eastbourne. The Canadian, who pushed Nadal to five sets in the Roland Garros fourth round, posted a 4-2 record in ‘s-Hertogenbosch and Halle in the buildup to Wimbledon.

Fritz, who defeated his countryman Cressy in the Eastbourne final, opens against #NextGenATP Italian Musetti. The pair’s first meeting came at Wimbledon in 2018, when Fritz won in four sets. The 11th-seeded American leads their ATP Head2Head series 3-2, with both defeats coming on clay.

Holger Rune will seek to build on his Roland Garros quarter-final run in his opener, with the 24th seed seeking his first grass win of the season against Marcos Giron. Fellow #NextGenATP star Jack Draper will face Zizou Bergs in his opening match, one year after taking a set off Djokovic in his Wimbledon debut. Rune, Musetti and Draper are third, fourth and fifth — respectively — in the Pepperstone ATP Race To Milan, trailing only Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.

Twelfth seed Diego Schwartzman is set to open against American Stefan Kozlov, while 13th seed Denis Shapovalov faces France’s Arthur Rinderknech.

Jannik Sinner scored a pair of firsts on Monday at Wimbledon with his 7-5, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 first-round victory against Stan Wawrinka. The 20-year-old Italian earned his first win in his second Wimbledon main-draw appearance, with the victory doubling as his first tour-level victory on grass. 

“It feels amazing, obviously,” Sinner said of the milestone win on Court 2. “It took a little bit, but I’m happy to be in the second round here. Against Stan, it was a very tough match because he is an incredible champion and he showed it so many times. I wish him all the best to come back stronger.”

After both men traded crushing baseline blows throughout two tight sets, Sinner’s agility and consistency proved the difference in the third and fourth sets as the 10th seed ran out a comfortable winner. 

The Italian finished with 42 winners to 33 errors and improved his court coverage throughout the match despite a few slips. Wawrinka looked to step into the court often, but even when he did gain a positional advantage, Sinner’s persistent retrieving allowed the Italian to keep his footing in the points.

“In the end, [moving on the grass felt] much better,” he added. “In the beginning it was tough, and with the sun also. But I’m very happy that in the end, I played better, I served better. So hopefully it can give me confidence for the next round.”

Sinner troubled Wawrinka on return throughout the match, converting on five of his 15 break points. The Swiss found a groove in set two to close it out with three easy holds following an early break, but never truly threatened in the final two sets.

After dropping serve for the second time in the match early in set two — he also failed to serve out the opening set at 5-4 — Sinner did not face another break point.

“I like to play best-of-five [sets], because you have many moments to change the game, change the rhythm,” he explained. “I like to stay on court, which helps me a lot. A Grand Slam is different, the crowd is different. Here is special, so thanks for coming out and hope to see you guys also in the next round.”

Sinner next faces the winner of the matchup between Daniel Altmaier and Mikael Ymer, which will be completed on Tuesday. Sweden’s Ymer leads 6-3, 7-5.

Wawrinka, just five tournaments into his comeback from a left-foot injury, was seeking his first grass-court win of the season. A two-time quarter-finalist at Wimbledon (2014-15), the Swiss was competing at SW19 for the first time since 2019. 

The 37-year-old now holds a 2-1 ATP Head2Head series lead over Sinner, with victories in 2019 at the US Open and in Antwerp.