Tennis

Wimbledon: Christopher Eubanks still punching above his weight

The American has made it through to the second week of Wimbledon to face world number five Stefanos Tsitsipas

Christopher Eubanks celebrates beating Christopher O'Connell during their men's singles match at Wimbledon on Saturday. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images

Johnny Watterson's face
Johnny Watterson
Sun Jul 9 2023 - 18:08

He had never played Wimbledon before. He had never reached beyond the second round of a Grand Slam. He is not one of the younger wave of players laying down a marker. Chris Eubanks had never been heard of outside tennis until last week. He is no relation to Chris Eubank of Brighton, the lispy, monocled middleweight boxer of the 1990s, a personality difficult to forget.

American Eubanks has, without warning, decided this will be his breakout year by charging into his first career Grand Slam fourth round. He also celebrated his first ATP title in Mallorca over a week ago and scored his career-best eighth straight Tour-level victory to set up a fourth-round showdown against the Andy Murray slayer, Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Four months ago Eubanks cracked the top 100 and cried. A video of him choking back tears after being told that he had finally broken into the inner sanctum after an early-round win in Miami went viral in the tennis world. This week he is in the top 40 and the second week of Wimbledon. Of all the runs players have made through week one, that of the 27-year-old has been the most surreal and unforeseen.

“I think I said it to somebody recently, I said your career really changes going from 110 to 85,” said Eubanks. “You can argue that it does change as well going from 85 to 50. But when you spent four or five years hovering between 150 and 200 and 220, that jump from 110 to 85 meant so, so, so much to me because that’s what I have been wanting and striving for so long.

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Before his sudden rise, Chris Eubanks was considering a different change of direction in his career. Photograph: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

“Now everything is just sweet. Everything just continues. It’s like the icing on the cake. Wimbledon, second week, the reason we play tennis. So it means the world. I’m excited to get back out here and compete in the fourth round.”

Even the crowds like Eubanks despite him knocking out Britain’s Cameron Norrie in front of a packed hometown court. During the warm-up, he realised he had seen the court somewhere before, having watched an epic match played on it a few years ago.

“I think a hot moment kind of came in the warm-up when I looked up at the stands of Court 18 and realised, I’m like, ‘oh, this is the Isner-Mahut court,’” said Eubanks. “I watched tennis on this court for three days one time a few years ago. That was kind of cool.”

Today there is a plaque on the wall at the court marking the first-round marathon, which is the longest tennis match ever played. Lasting 11 hours and five minutes, John Isner and Nicolas Mahut ground it out for over three days as the world watched on in 2010. Isner finally won 70-68 in the fifth set.

Following Norrie, Eubanks ejected Chris O’Connell of Australia in one of those tension-filled, knife-edge Wimbledon duels with booming serves, short rallies and three tie-break sets that all went the way of the man from Atlanta.

Given that players have been unable to deal with the blazing serve and laser forehand of the 6ft 7in son of a Baptist minister, Eubanks must now be considered as one of the big dangermen remaining in the draw.

Because of preaching duties, it was Eubanks’s mother who accompanied her son to most of his Sunday matches. As a younger player, he didn’t rate highly enough to receive financial support from the United States Tennis Association.

Chris Eubanks has become a fan's favourite at Wimbledon despite beating one of the local challengers. Photograph: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

Following last week’s win over Norrie, he revealed that two years ago he had a heart-to-heart conversation with his agent. Covid had disrupted his climb and when tennis resumed, his feeling was that he was having to start a career all over again.

Outside of the Top 150, at the age of 25 (he turned 27 in May), he figured it might be a good time to begin thinking about a life beyond the grind of challenger tennis, so he made his debut as a tennis commentator on the Tennis Channel in April of 2022.

“There were definitely some low moments. I think that part of the reason I even got into commentary was because I had a real sit-down with my agent in 2021 and I said, ‘listen, if I’m still 200 by next year and injuries haven’t played a part, I can do something else with my time,’” he said.

“I said, ‘man, this isn’t fun’. Like, it’s not that glamorous if you’re ranked around 200.”

Few of the top players have ever faced him, although his round-of-16 opponent on Monday, Tsitsipas, will know all about the 23 aces he delivered to O’Connell. The pair will meet on an outside, uncovered Court Two.

Just off Broadway is unlikely to bother the unsung Eubanks as attention will fall on the meeting of Carlos Alcaraz, the world number one, and one of the stars of the Netflix tennis docuseries Break Point, Italy’s Matteo Berrettini.

“If they told me a few weeks ago you’re going to play five days in a row in Wimbledon, I would have signed with my blood,” said the Italian last week. Eubanks might have thought the same.

Wimbledon