Christopher Eubanks believes he is able to compete with the world’s best, with former world No 4 James Blake backing the American to shine at this year’s US Open – live on Sky Sports.
The 27-year-old from Atlanta, Georgia arrived at Wimbledon with just two Grand Slam wins to his name and a dislike of playing on grass but emerged as one of the stories of the Championships.
He upset seeded stars Cameron Norrie and Stefanos Tsitsipas en route to the quarter-finals and looked set to once again punch above his weight before his progress was halted by defeat in a five-set thriller with 2021 US Open champion Daniil Medvedev.
Speaking about his future, Eubanks said: “It’s a bit tough right after the match to jump right into setting lofty goals at this point.
“If I can continue to have the joy that I had on court for these past three weeks, continue to work as hard as I’ve been doing over the past year, I think good things are going to happen and it’s kind of going to take care of itself.
“I’m having a great time. I’m probably having the most fun I’ve ever had in playing tennis. I’m going to continue to try to ride this momentum out.”
I hope he’s got that work ethic and I hope he enjoys being a superstar because that is what he is in the making.
Charismatic Eubanks’ whirlwind experience in south-west London has transformed his career with Blake talking up his chances of a deep run at Flushing Meadows after the American heeded his advice about strength and conditioning.
“He has become a superstar back home, which is just great to see because he deserves it, he is the most genuine guy, studies hard, does the work in the gym,” said Blake.
“He’s also done every little thing that little bit better. Whether it’s the recovery, whether it’s the nutrition and that was what I was on him for, the last five or six years, was you need to beef up a little bit and get a little bit stronger, and he’s done that.
“He’s proud that he’s put on some weight, even though it may not look like it. He was even skinnier when I used to see him when he started on tour. He’s doing a lot of things the right way, doing all the recovery, doing all the treatment, doing the icing, doing everything he needs to do to be extremely professional and a little bit in every aspect of his game has made a big difference.”
Eubanks hit a record 321 winners at this year’s Wimbledon
Eubanks was a British headline writer’s dream given the likeness of his name to the famous boxer, but he let his groundstrokes do the talking at Wimbledon as his 321 winners broke a 31-year-old tournament record held by compatriot Andre Agassi.
Big things could be about to happen to Eubanks and he is sure to be a star attraction in New York, having already climbed up to world No 32 in the ATP Rankings – in contention to be automatically seeded at Flushing Meadows.
“I’ve always thought that being yourself on the court really endears you to fans. Whether that’s Pete Sampras, very inward and very focused and that’s it, or you’re having fun or Marat Safin who’s breaking rackets, Eubanks is genuinely like that and I think that shines through to the fans where he’s having fun out there and they see that. They want to have fun because he’s playing a game and they’re watching a game and they’re there to be entertained, and he’s just having a great time,” said Blake, a former two-time US Open quarter-finalist.
“Don’t get me wrong, he’s got the work ethic, he’s doing everything he can, but he’s also having a good time while he’s doing it and I think that’s going to shine through and I think fans are going to really appreciate that and it’s a reason they’re going to gravitate to him even more.
“He’s going to be one of the stars at the US Open. He might be on the side of a bus, he might be up on billboards and for him a year ago to be playing Challengers in Korea and just toiling away, trying to get points to be in the top 100, to be a star in New York, and New York goes crazy for two weeks for the US Open. For him to be one of those stars is going to be hopefully a life-changing experience for him, in a positive way.
“A lot times people go in one of two directions; they shy away from that and they don’t like it or they just embrace it and then it makes them kind of motivated [thinking] ‘this is fun, I could get used to this. Let me do this all the time and let me keep working my tail off so I can be on a billboard every year when I come back to the US Open.’ So, I hope it’s going to be fun for him. I hope he’s got that work ethic and I hope he enjoys being a superstar because that is what he is in the making.”
The American was a British headline writer’s dream at Wimbledon given the likeness of his name to the famous boxer
Referring back to Eubank the boxer, the legendary WBO middleweight and super-middleweight champion between 1990 and 1995, Eubanks the tennis player admitted he knew nothing of his “flamboyant” near-namesake until a few years ago.
“I think the first I heard about him was probably right after I went pro,” he smiled. “I had a Wikipedia page. All of a sudden I saw there was a name very similar to mine. That was when I started to be like, ‘who is this guy? He seems to be a pretty cool guy’.
“I don’t know nearly that much about him. I do know he is a pretty sharp dresser and I guess I’d say flamboyant – is that a right word to use about him?”