Maxime Cressy remains perfect on serve through two matches at the Infosys Hall of Fame Open. After not facing a break point in his opening win against Mitchell Krueger, the fourth seed saved three break points on Thursday against Steve Johnson in the quarter-finals.
In a 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-4 victory, Cressy turned the match around with a key three-game stretch that spanned the final two sets. After capitalising on his first break chances late in the second, he saved a break point in serving out the set. Cressy broke again to start the decider and did not face a break point in the final set.
"It was actually a very tough first set, a lot of nerves. Playing on the centre court is incredible," Cressy said in his on-court interview. "[Johnson] is a terrific player. He was extremely focussed and sharp on the serve in the first set. I had to stay focussed on my serve, what I can control, and I was really able to do it successfully, especially starting in the second set."
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Cressy handled a nervy moment as he served out the match after two straight double faults turned two match points at 40/15 into deuce. But he stayed aggressive on the next two points, getting to the net behind a pair of second serves to advance to his third semi-final of the 2022 season.
"There's never better practice than matches," Cressy said of handling the pressure. "I guess my secret would be to play a lot of tournaments and lot of matches. I'm getting used to playing these tough moments, but it was extremely stressful for me today."
Cressy, who reached finals in Melbourne and Eastbourne this season, moves up to No. 38 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings by reaching the semi-finals. He is currently at a career-high of No. 41 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, one year after entering Newport as the World No. 151 last season, when he reached the quarter-finals.
Following that matchup, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Jason Kubler returned to the stadium court to finish their second-round matchup, which was suspended due to poor light Wednesday night with Kubler poised to serve at 5-6 in the deciding set.
Jason Kubler advances to his first tour-level quarter-final. Photo Credit: Kate Whitney Lucey/International Tennis Hall of Fame
After saving a match point on serve, Kubler came from 1/3 down in the tie-break to clinch a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) victory, earning the win in his first match against a Top 10 opponent.
"I was pretty nervous, to be honest," the 29-year-old said post-match. "Luckily the last couple months I've been doing so much work on my serve. I was thinking about all the stuff I've done the last couple of months and that's what gave me a bit of confidence.
"Just very fortunate to be in this position. Today could have gone either way... Fortunate that it went my way today, but I'm just happy that I stuck in and tried my best for the whole time."
Auger-Aliassime's match point came with Kubler served to stay alive at 5-6, 30/40. In the 5-5 game on Wednesday night, the Canadian saved a break point to deny Kubler a chance to serve out the match.
While the delay made for a stressful wait, the Aussie had a similar experience at Wimbledon when he faced an overnight delay before serving out his second-round victory against Denis Novak. He went on to reach the fourth round at SW19, his best major result.
"It's definitely motivating, the last few months, the work we've been putting in with the team" he said of his recent success, which also includes an ATP Challenger Tour title in Little Rock. "It's giving me a lot of confidence that we're on the right track. Regardless of how this morning went, I was still very happy with how the match went. Just confident that the process we're taking is heading in the right direction."
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