NEWPORT, R.I. – Maxime Cressy, who starred for the UCLA men’s tennis team and head coach Billy Martin from 2016-19, accomplished a career milestone when he won the 2022 Hall of Fame Open singles title Sunday in Newport, R.I.
The title represents Cressy’s first on the ATP Tour. Already a finalist at the Melbourne (Australia) and Eastbourne (England) events this year, he used a comeback effort to overcome World No. 42 and third-seeded Alexander Bublik of Kazakshtan. Cressy will be slotted at a career-best No. 33 on the newest ATP singles list Monday.
Bublik emphatically took the first set and nine of the match’s first 11 completed games. Cressy answered by taking the next six, however, and the second frame. The third proved a back-and-forth clash, culminating in a tiebreaker. There, Cressy took three of the first four points and the final three for a 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(3) victory.
En route to the final, the fourth-seeded Cressy defeated fellow Americans Mitchell Krueger, Steve Johnson and No. 2 seed John Isner. Against Isner, who entered the semifinal-round contest on a 10-match winning streak, Cressy earned a late break of serve before closing out his 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 win.
Cressy began 2022 ranked No. 112 among singles players by the ATP.
While at UCLA, Cressy reached All-America status and was voted to the All-Pac-12 First Team in 2019. His crowning achievement came May 25, 2019, when he collaborated with Keegan Smith to capture the NCAA Championships doubles title in Orlando, Fla. The pair went 21-0 on the season, never dropping as much as a set.
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Maxime Cressy is the 2022 #InfosysHallOfFameOpen singles champion!#GoBruinspic.twitter.com/ODyboqLEKt
— UCLA Men’s Tennis (@uclatennis) July 17, 2022
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