Why Cressy Is Stepping Back To Move Forward

Maxime Cressy is one of the unique players on the ATP Tour. The American serves and volleys every point, for better or worse.

But the former college tennis player is eager to show that he is more than just a serving powerhouse. Cressy will hope to demonstrate that against former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka on Wednesday at the Mutua Madrid Open.

“I’m starting to change my return position. Last year, my return position [was] very close, even inside the baseline,” Cressy told ATPTour.com. “So now I’m going to make really big changes in my game with the vision of getting to my goals. I think now, the key for me is to be consistent and getting the balls in play as much as I can.

“I think being deeper off the court is going to be a very important detail for me to start getting into a lot of rallies.”

Cressy was clear that he is maintaining his aggressive mindset and will continue going to the net whenever possible — he writes ‘Instill Doubt’ on his racquet after all. But after plenty of analysis, he is taking a different approach to his overall strategy.

“[I am] sticking with my mindset to come to the net. But before that, I need to have a solid foundation on the baseline,” Cressy said. “And that’s what I’ve been working on [and] tirelessly analysed… I started against Felix [Auger-Aliassime in Dubai]. I think it was very competitive match on his service games. So I’m improving a lot. And I am going to keep improving and in an unlimited way. So I’m really looking forward to what’s coming.”

One might wonder why Cressy would sacrifice part of the unique trait that has helped him trouble so many stars. The No. 39 player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings explained he is trying to find any improvement he can.

“[I am] actually starting to achieve an increasingly big level in my serve and [realised] that my ranking [has] still [been] the same for the last couple months, even though my serve is getting better and better. That’s the realisation that stuck with me,” Cressy said. “That one per cent change on the returns can get me plus five, plus 10 spots in the rankings instead of a one per cent change on the serve. That is not really getting me much improvement.”

The numbers back up Cressy’s line of thought. One year ago he won 88.8 per cent of his service games according to Infosys ATP Stats. So far in 2023 his success rate has been 89.6 per cent, the fourth-best percentage on Tour behind only Novak Djokovic, Matteo Berrettini and Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Cressy has also seen gains behind his first serve, winning 81 per cent of those points this year, second on Tour trailing only Berrettini. In 2022 the American won 78.3 per cent of his first-serve points.

However, Cressy has won just nine per cent of his return games in 2023. It is not a statistic he is hiding from. That is why he is so keen to work on that side of his game.

“I knew it was coming. I knew I had to start having a growth mindset on the returns as well,” Cressy said. “And that’s what I’m doing and I think big things are coming from me.”

Cressy has long studied the best servers in the world — both past and present — on YouTube to try to apply certain traits from their games to his own. This year’s Montpellier finalist has been studying the returns of Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. He has also watched players like Roger Federer to see different approaches to the return.

“I think the main takeaway is to return in a way that I feel good on the serve,” Cressy said. “So I think having an aggressive mindset on the return is the way to go for sure.”