Christopher Eubanks has reached the quarter-final of Wimbledon, after winning his first match against a top 5 ranked opponent in Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Eubanks had never previously played in the main draw at SW19, following defeats in the qualifying draw on four occasions, but has found grass court form this year at just the right time.
The 27-year-old was ranked outside the top 100 as recent as March this year, but rose up the rankings dramatically after reaching the last eight at the Masters 1000 event in Miami.
Following a second round defeat at the ATP Challenger event in Surbiton last month, Eubanks sent a message to former WTA No.1 Kim Clijsters confessing his dislike for grass courts, “Kim! Grass is the stupidest surface to play tennis on.”
However, after receiving some advice from the twice Wimbledon semi-finalist, Eubanks has upped his game and is now on a nine-match winning streak after claiming his first ATP title in Mallorca.
Eubanks promised to never say a bad word about the surface ever again following his five set triumph over Tsitsipas, “Those words will never come out of my mouth for the rest of my career. Grass and I had a strained relationship over the years. Right now I think it’s my best friend.”
The ATP No.43 spoke about how much the victory meant to him, “Dream come true. Yeah, it’s tough to really put into words, but to be able to come out today and play the way that I did, just kind of take everything in, it’s surreal. I can’t really describe it. It would be better if you guys asked questions. I think that might make things a little bit easier.”
Eubanks will play his first ever Grand Slam quarter-final match tomorrow against Daniil Medvedev, who was also the person to end his dream run in Miami.
Christopher Eubanks and his winning streak
With Eubanks possibly the story of The Championships so far, we at Tennishead wanted to reflect on his incredible nine-match winning streak on grass:
Mallorca
First Round – Beat Alex Michelsen (LL), 6-3 6(6)-7 7-5
Second Round – Beat Ben Shelton (3), 7-6(4) 4-6 7-6(2)
Quarter-final – Beat Arthur Rinderknech (LL), 7-6(5) 7-6(4)
Semi-final – Beat Lloyd Harris, 4-6 6-3 7-6(9)
Final – Beat Adrian Mannarino (4), 6-1 6-4
Wimbledon
First Round – Beat Thiago Monteiro, 4-6 7-5 7-5 6-3
Second Round – Beat Cameron Norrie (12), 6-3 3-6 6-2 7-6(3)
Third Round – Beat Christopher O’Connell, 7-6(5) 7-6(3) 7-6(2)
Fourth Round – Beat Stefanos Tsitsipas (5), 3-6 7-6(4) 3-6 6-4 6-4
