“Man, I’m really about to play a Grand Slam quarterfinal. I thought that was a really, really cool, cool thing,” the American said Wednesday after being edged out
by Daniil Medvedev.Before his quarterfinal at Wimbledon, Chris Eubanks was chatting on the practice court with ESPN’s Pam Shriver. She listed the names of the players left in the men’s draw:
“Djokovic, Alcaraz, Medvedev, Sinner, Rune and…Eubanks.” It drew a smile, as intended, from the American. He had no trouble admitting that his name sounded a little strange in that company.
That was a big part of the beauty of Eubanks’ run to the Wimbledon quarters: He was the everyman, living out the fantasy of every tennis player and fan. Eubanks wasn’t groomed for greatness from birth. As a kid, he wasn’t touted as a future Top 10 player. He wasn’t a coddled or sequestered super-jock in training. He took the long way—the college and Challenger route—to get here, and developed an intelligent, regular-guy personality along the way.
When Eubanks beat Stefanos Tsitsipas on Monday, he walked out to the middle of the court, raised his arms high over his head, and soaked in the massive cheers. It was a gesture of victory that he may have learned from Juan Martin del Potro or Rafael Nadal. Seeing Chris READ MORE