AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 22, 2022

Maxime Cressy

Press Conference

M. CRESSY/C. O'Connell

6-2, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. How are you feeling after the game?

MAXIME CRESSY: Well, I feel fresh, I feel good. I feel very satisfied with my performance. Very difficult conditions, but no, very happy I feel, yes.

Q. Is it hard to wrap your head around the guy who didn't make the UCLA team in his freshman year is in the fourth round of the Australian Open?

MAXIME CRESSY: Yeah, I believe anything is possible and I think that I believed from the start, even though I wasn't on the lineup my freshman year, I had that self belief and that carried me through the following four, five, six years and I just kept improving ever since.

Q. Can I ask you specifically about your aggressive approach on serve. You throw in 20 doubles in the first match, 12 in the next, very good today 28 aces, four doubles, but what's your mindset not minding serving some doubles at times?

MAXIME CRESSY: Yeah, my mindset is to go for it and that's my game. I don't really think much. Sometimes I have good days, sometimes bad days and I feel like on the good days it's very difficult to beat that style of play going for both serves.

But the more I do it the more natural it is and I feel like with that game style it's very tough for the opponents to have any control. And I've been developing that game style for three, four years and it's paying off, especially on the good days it's very, very efficient.

Q. Medvedev stands very deep in the court. How is that going to impact your serve and volley game?

MAXIME CRESSY: I actually don't even think about my opponent because they try many different things. He could try to return close or if it doesn't work from far from the baseline he could try anything.

So I try not to look at what the opponent does because especially when I'm very efficient on my serve and volley, they try different things to get in my head and if I focus on them it disrupts my game. So, yeah, my mindset is to completely block off what my opponent does on the return.

Q. You have had a meteoric rise, do you have any paid sponsorships?

MAXIME CRESSY: Not yet. I wait, I'm patient, I wait until I have a major breakthrough and I have a leverage to negotiate, especially during the COVID and everything it's much tougher to have a great deal with a sponsorship, so I prefer really breaking through to the top 50, top 10 and then I negotiate, yeah.

Q. Is that where you see yourself going, top 10?

MAXIME CRESSY: Yeah, even No. 1, yeah, I'm very confident. My game style can beat anyone, so starting this year I'm very confident. I played Nadal and I really believe that it really put him in an uncomfortable position so I really stick to my routines and to a very disciplined mindset I can do it, yeah.

Q. Do you feel extra, obviously personal pride, but do you feel extra pride having the success doing it the way that you're doing it with that game style? I mean, people are calling you the guy that's bringing back serve and volley.

MAXIME CRESSY: Yeah, my vision from the very beginning was to bring serve and volley back. I've had many different, many people tell me that it's dead, it's not going to be efficient or effective today and courts are slower, the returns, there's better returners today. I've heard many excuses that serve and volley was not going to be the best game style for me, but I had a vision to bring it back and I believe it's going to happen, yeah.

Q. Can I ask about the notebook that you have at the change of ends, what sort of stuff is in there?

MAXIME CRESSY: Yeah, it's one of my routines to be in the present in those kind of conditions with the crowd and everything, the mind can wander really easily. The notebook is away for me to be in a tunnel and not be distracted by anything.

Q. Is it mental stuff?

MAXIME CRESSY: Yes, mindset. Yeah. Mental routine to stay in the present and not be distracted by other thoughts from the pass or the future related with winning or losing or yeah, just stage in the present. Very effective, yeah.

Q. You said that you had people tell you and doubt serve and volley. Have you ever doubted it yourself when you were in college for example in the freshman team?

MAXIME CRESSY: Yeah, my vision on the pro tour started my junior year of college. I wasn't thinking about being a professional tennis player before, my vision was more to become No. 1 of my school at UCLA.

Then I realized that improvements were really quick and my junior year I realized I could have a professional career too. So I did have many doubts, of course, but the most important is that I kept going and I stayed determined and now the doubts completely are gone. Yeah, no more doubts.

Q. You're playing the top seed remaining in the next round. I would imagine that will be either on Rod Laver, possibly the second court. You strike me as someone that will enjoy that big stage, would that be right?

MAXIME CRESSY: Yeah, yeah, I mean I love playing on any court, whether it's Court 15 or the Rod Laver, I don't isolate specific events. But, no, I'm very excited to play him and I believe it's going to be a very disruptive game against him, yeah.

Q. Is that the biggest court you've played on?

MAXIME CRESSY: I've played on that court before two weeks ago three times, I believe. But, yeah, it is the -- I played on Arthur Ashe at the US Open against Tsitsipas, but, yeah, second biggest for sure.