"Working on myself": Daniil Medvedev adjusts to Cressy's style to avoid letting out his crazier side

INTERVIEW: Medvedev assesses fourth-round performance

When you’re the reigning US Open champion, the first assumption is that you’ll be the one dictating the terms of most rallies. The second assumption is that when you’re ranked number two in the world and your opponent is 68 spots below you, the underdog will be far more anguished—particularly given that this is only his fourth appearance in the main draw of a major and the first time he’s reached the round of 16.

Toss those two notions out the window when examining Monday’s Australian match between Daniil Medvedev and Maxime Cressy. Over the course of three-and-a-half hours, Medvedev scraped out a 6-2, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4), 7-5 victory that was far different than most contemporary tennis matches. “Well, it was a difficult match, like, to get used to his style,” said Medvedev. “Yeah, he definitely played a good match and could go either way.”

Besides serving and volleying on every point, Cressy’s strategy is to usually hit two first serves rather than back off on his second. Unfazed by double-faulting 18 times, Cressy hit 18 aces and came to net 135 times. While technically the winner on 89 of them, the 6’ 6” Cressy also gets credit for all he did to make Medvedev earn the other 46. Such is the nature of serve-and-volley tennis, a form of sustained pressure that is far more intrusive and implicating than the baseline-based attrition seen in most current matches. Call what Cressy does a form of cumulative annoyance.

The Cressy attack clearly began to wear on Medvedev all through the fourth set. The seeds of annoyance were planted early, Medvedev saving a set point in the second set at 5-6, 30-40 with a spectacular forehand passing shot. Then, in the third set tiebreaker, Medvedev served at 4-3. But on that point, Cressy had deployed an old school tactic—a forehand chip return—to charge the net and put away a volley. At 4-all, Cressy anticipated a wide serve to his forehand and crushed a winner. Two points later, he’d won the set.

It was quite an effort, a throwback to the prime of Patrick Rafter, defusing the lacerating drives of Andre Agassi with exemplary tranquility and extraordinary athleticism. But while Agassi had faced net rushers many times, such opponents are quite rare for the Russian. Said Medvedev, “I want to say what he does is really good, especially, I mean, volleys, after the serve he's really covering good the court, because I almost never got a return winner, and, yeah, he's really good at covering the court.”

A common complaint from those at the mercy of a style like Cressy’s is that they’re not given the chance to play much tennis. Should they? Cressy recently said that he hopes to eventually become a top tenner, perhaps even number one. Asked if this was possible, Medvedev said, “The way he played today, completely.”

Cressy’s massive serve often paved the way for firm volley placements. But not always. Many other times, Cressy fielded a low Medvedev return with a short and soft half-volley that was either untouchable or tantalizingly reachable, but left the arriving Medvedev with scarcely an option.

In the fourth set, Medvedev earned eight break points, only to see Cressy repel all of them. “This is so boring,” Medvedev yelled at one stage. Following a laser of a Cressy second serve on one break point, Medvedev decried his bad luck. “I was quite mad today because of few things,” said Medvedev. “To be honest, I'm working on myself, and that's why I managed to win and still kept my composure, as much as I could, because sometimes I go much more crazier than I did today.”

With Cressy serving at 5-all, ad-in, another tiebreaker seemed likely, precisely the kind of late stage squeeze net rushers relish. For this is the whole point of the constant attack: to force the opponent to come up with big passing shots at critical junctures. But Cressy’s technique betrayed him, as he netted a sitter of a forehand volley. Holding another ad, Cressy double-faulted. That was followed by a wide forehand half-volley and, on break point number nine, a sharp Medvedev down-the-line forehand passing shot. From there, Medvedev held serve at love, a long afternoon of doubt concluding with seven straight points of deliverance.