I asked Maxime Cressy why he has subdued his emotional adrenaline in recent years. In his early ATP career the 27 year old was very animated and vocal. Once ranked 31 in the world, Cressy has fallen out of the top 150. He said he’s striving to be more even keel and emotionally balanced, focused, avoiding getting too up or down. Cressy beat Albot in the first round 76 in the third then lost yesterday 46 46 to Alex Michelsen for the second year in a row, last year he lost 57 in the third to the California teenager.
I saw Adrian Mannarino do something yesterday that I’ve never seen a other pro do in my thirty years of covering tennis. Trailing 46 11 to Reilly Opelka, the first point of game three Opelka serving the French lefty hit a bad passing shot that the 6 foot 11 Tower easily volleyed for a winner. Mannarino then slapped himself in the face. Opelka eventually prevailed in three sets.
After the win Opelka said Mannarino is hard to play because “he hits the ball at you and keeps it low, he forces you into playing his patterns.”
Benoit Paire did a face time call right after beating Zachary Svajda 76 in the third set, with… his grandmother, mother and dog. That’s what he told on court interviewer Blair Henley. Paire is also wearing some wacky, wild colorful Celio outfits, first cheddar cheese orange shorts and top, then second a green white combo, yesterday vs Giron all black.
The hardest working player I’ve seen here this week is Coleman Wong who lost first round. Every day he’s been on the hard practice courts for hours and hours. I even had to say yesterday to his coach, “Everytime I look at the practice courts all I see is Coleman Wong.” The Hong Kong player turned around and smiled. Maybe surprised somebody even knows who he is.
Elliott Spizziri, the local wildcard from Connecticut, won his first match here vs. Li Tu but lost a close second rounder to Alexander Vukic. He thanked the tournament director for the wildcard and revealed he just bought a new Jeep Cherokee last week.
A boxing champion was here this week, Demetrius “Boo” Andrade, who is from Providence. He may be the first and only professional boxer to attend the tournament.
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