NEW YORK — Stefanos Tsitsipas made it to the U.S. Open’s third round by withstanding the so-rare-these-days serve-and-volley style of his 168th-ranked American opponent, Maxime Cressy.
The No. 4-seeded Tsitsipas won 7-6 (2), 6-3, 6-4 on a humid night in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“It’s always great breaking a sweat,” the 22-year-old from Greece joked.
He was a semifinalist at the 2019 Australian Open and has reached the fourth round at Wimbledon and the French Open, but hadn’t been past the second round at Flushing Meadows.
To do so, Tsitsipas needed to figure out Cressy, who went to the net a total of 92 times, winning 52 of those points. Tsitsipas only moved forward 20 times.
Cressy played serve-and-volley tennis 73 times, 67 more than Tsitsipas.
“His game is very difficult to read,” Tsitsipas said. “You don’t get to play against players like this very often … and you have to adjust as soon as possible.”
Tsitsipas now faces No. 27 seed Borna Coric.