CHRIS EUBANKS is not feeling optimistic about the state of the game when the grass-roots season starts in 2023.
He found he couldn’t escape his negative thoughts about the surface, from its movement to the slower speed of the ball. After losing in the second round at the Surbiton Challenger in June, she reached out to Kim Clijsters, the four-time major champion and former world No. 1, for guidance or tips or whatever that could help him get through the next few weeks.
How it started vs. How is it going
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU @Clijsterskim to keep my spirits up at the start of this grass field season. I really appreciate it 🥹🙌🏾🏆 pic.twitter.com/ZgKlQdG6zf
– Christopher Eubanks (@chris_eubanks96) July 1, 2023
Clijsters responded with encouraging words and advised them to work on their footwork. Eubanks took those words to heart. Not only did he see significant improvements, but he also found his mentality about the grass changing. Understanding his limitations, focus on aspects of the game that translate to the surface, including large portions and aggressive net play.
“I just had to change my mindset and then the movement naturally got better because I didn’t feel like it,” Eubanks told ESPN last month. “I just focus on the things I’m good at on the surface, and then I let the rest take care of themselves.”
Just weeks later, Eubanks won the first ATP title of his career in Mallorca, breaking into the top 50 for the first time. He arrived at Wimbledon the following day full of confidence and rode his newfound momentum to reach the quarter-finals, including record wins over Cameron Norrie and Stefanos Tsitsipas. It was his best result in a major and his heroics made him a fan favorite. His ranking rose to a career high of No.
A year later, Eubanks, 28, returns to Wimbledon with the aim of getting his season back on track after a challenging season. After failing to win a match on clay, Eubanks has had success on grass – reaching the quarter-finals in Halle – but collapsed in the opening match of his defense mission in Mallorca last week. However, Wimbledon is already a bright spot in the calendar coming into the spring. He will open his 2024 campaign at the All England Club on Tuesday against qualifier Quentin Halys.
While he tried not to think too far ahead last month, Eubanks, who was just named to the U.S. Olympic team for Paris, couldn’t hide his excitement about returning to the site of his career’s breakthrough.
“(Last year) did wonders for me,” Eubanks said. “It allows me to know that in a certain week, I can catch the fire. Now I know that I have a level that can lead me to win the tour title, the Slam quarterfinals. I can do it before I enter the tournament now knowing that I can run and there is no reasons why it can’t happen…
“I’m very excited to return to something that feels really, really familiar, which is grass, and hopefully we can find a little bit of the magic from last year.”
Before the last Wimbledon, Eubanks’ best result at a Slam was reaching the second round, which he had done twice in eight main draw appearances. The record at the All England Club is even less famous. Eubanks has played in the qualifying rounds of four tournaments but has never advanced to the main round.
He became the 13th man in the Open Era to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals in his main draw debut at the event and the first American to do so since 1984. It was the Cinderella story of the tournament and the crowd loved his spirit. and earnest questions after each victory.
“I feel like a dream right now,” Eubanks said on court after beating Tsitsipas for the top five victories of his career.
While many top All-Americans have announced junior careers or achieved success at a young age, Eubanks was not heavily recruited by college programs. But he eventually caught the attention of the coaching staff at Georgia Tech — and he got the most opportunities at that school.
In three seasons, Eubanks was twice named ACC Player of the Year and a two-time All-American. He turned pro after his junior season in 2017. Success was not immediate. He mostly plays in the lower level Futures and Challengers events and is slowly working his way up the ranks. They are investing in a full-time coach in 2021 – which can be a financial challenge for those ranked outside the top 100 – and continue to invest time in training and in the gym.
Progress is slow and he begins to question whether it is worth it, even doubting that he will reach the highest level of the game. But things started to turn around at the Miami Open in March 2023. Coming into the qualifiers, Eubanks won six victories and reached the quarterfinals for the first time in a 1000-level event. When he finally lost to Daniil Medvedev, the race put him in the top 100. He cried when he found out he has reached a milestone.
It’s something he’s done throughout his professional career, but once he reaches double digits, he stops focusing on rankings or anything long-term.
“After Miami, I just stopped setting goals, whether it was a (ranking) number or a certain number of wins,” Eubanks said. “I just threw that out and instead said, ‘Well, did I put on my best run today? Am I better today than I was yesterday?’ And if that’s the case, then we’ve achieved our goal, now we continue to do it every day and I’m still trying to put that mindset into practice.
It’s something that has served him well in ups and downs. There have been two over the past year.
Eubanks reached the quarterfinals of the next tournament after Wimbledon at the Atlanta Open and then came to New York for the US Open the following month as the first seed in a major tournament. There he was in the spotlight before the play started, appeared on television on a national morning show and was even invited for a backstage tour of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton.” Even some of his friends couldn’t express their happiness at the end result.
“Obviously, I love Chris and I’ve known him for a long time and I think you can see someone who works as hard as Chris, (is) what you would call a student of the game – he eats, breathes and sleeps tennis – to see that he can did well and achieved the results that every outstanding tennis player dreams of,” Sloane Stephens, the 2017 US Open champion, told the ATP at the time. “And I think we’re all very happy for him.”
But despite playing in front of an enthusiastic crowd on the show court, Eubanks lost in the second round. This season is even more challenging. Before reaching Halle, he had a record of 3-12 in tour events and lost eight matches. He fell in the second round at the Australian Open and in the opener against No. 1 world now Jannik Dosa in the French Open.
At the end of a disappointing clay winless season, Eubanks is excited for a fresh start on grass. He lost his first-round match in Stuttgart but rediscovered his form on the surface in Halle the following week — even beating defending champion Alexander Bublik in three sets in the Round of 16. It marked his first quarter-final appearance since Atlanta, nearly 11 months ago.
He had high hopes for Mallorca but ended up losing his first-round match to 18-year-old Jakub Mensik 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. His ranking dropped 20 places to 62nd as a result, making his Wimbledon performance all the more important.
Eubanks tries to stay focused on each tournament before Wimbledon. He called 2023’s experience at the tournament a “blur” and remembered being laser-focused on every match, but nothing else.
“You don’t have time to sit back and think too much about what’s going on (when it happens),” Eubanks said. “You just focus on what you can control and then everything happens so fast. When you’re done, you look up and it’s like, ‘Whoa, what was that?'”
Now a member of Wimbledon’s “Last Eight Club,” which officially recognizes players who have reached the quarterfinals in singles at the tournament with tickets for life, access to exclusive lounges and daily happy hours, Eubanks didn’t think he would have it. much time or interest to take advantage of the allowance. But he got his official welcome letter and pin last year and will check “later down the line.”
Despite his struggles this season, Eubanks enters the 2024 tournament in a very different position than last year. In 2023, he was unknown to many people and he had to extend his hotel reservation three times during his run. But this time, in addition to the 360 rating points that he will try to defend, he will be a must-watch for fans from the beginning and is ready to stay for a long time. He didn’t know what he would feel when he stepped onto the field for the first time, but he knew it would be a joy.
And she is his.
“I know the closer it gets, the more I’ll start internalizing it and thinking about what it’s going to feel like again,” Eubanks said. “I think it will be a good feeling and it will be exactly what I wanted after what was really difficult this year … and I started to gain momentum and now I know that I have been successful before.
