“Feels like I’m living in a dream right now” – Eubanks stuns Tsitsipas to reach Wimbledon quarter-finals

The dream run continues for American Chris Eubanks, and the 27-year-old is showing no signs of slowing down after hammering his way past fifth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas 3-6 7-6(4) 3-6 6-4 6-4 on No.2 Court on Monday afternoon at the All England Cloub

Backed by fervent support on No.2 Court, including American Coco Gauff and her family, 43rd-ranked and unseeded Eubanks delivered his first career top 5 win to become the second Wimbledon debutant to reach the men’s singles quarter-finals in 2023.

The 27-year-old will move over to a bigger court for his next match, a heavily anticipated clash against Russian Daniil Medvedev, the No 3 seed.

Living the dream

“I feel like I’m living a dream right now,” Eubanks told the crowd. “This is absolutely insane when you put it all into context. I’ve tried so much to block everything out and just focus on the next match as cliche as it sounds, but here you rattle off all that stuff –  man, it’s surreal. It’s unbelievable”

His rise is truly hard to fathom. 15 months ago the American took a job as a commentator with the Tennis Channel as a backup plan, due to the fact that he was mired outside of the top 100 and not trusting in his ability to break through as a top pro.

Eubanks was outside of the top 150 this time last year. Even after rising inside the top 50 in recent weeks, he still made his Wimbledon debut with a 2-8 lifetime record in main draw records at the majors.

But here at SW19 the former NCAA standout at Georgia Tech has proven that some good things take time.

Eubanks, who also took out No 12-seeded Cameron Norrie in the second round, stretches his career-best winning streak to nine matches. He claimed his first ATP title at Mallorca on the day before Wimbledon began, but his relationship with grass hasn’t always been the friendliest.

The emotions of reaching a first Grand Slam quarter-final 🙌#Wimbledon | @chris_eubanks96 pic.twitter.com/0WzdC4D2S7

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 10, 2023

A budding love affair with grass

The American came to Mallorca with a dismal 2-4 record on the surface, and had sent a well-documented text to Kim Clijsters detailing his disdain for the grass.

After Monday’s win, he assured the public that his tune has officially changed.

Those words will never come out of my mouth, for the rest of my career,” he said. “The grass and I, we’ve had a very strenuous relationship over the years but right now I think it’s my best friend.”

A server through and through

Eubanks had his ups and downs against Tsitsipas, but he said that his faith in his ability to serve himself out of trouble was what carried him through the three hour and four-minute seesaw battle.

“The thing is like I’d like to consider myself a server, and I think that servers really show that they are servers and moments like that,” Eubanks said. “Whether it’s consolidating a break, serving outside sets, serving out matches, and although it got a little bit dicey at the end, I still could have the confidence and say, ‘I’m a server I hit targets for these moments right here and let’s just try to do what I know how to do.'”

Eubanks won 75 of 102 first-serve points and hit 16 winners in the deciding fifth set, against just six for Tsitsipas.

The Greek, playing in the round of 16 for the second time at Wimbledon, was broken three times in the final set.

The American won against Brazilian Thiago Monteiro (4-6, 7-5, 7-5, 6-3), No 12 seed Cameron Norrie (6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (3)) and Australian Christopher O’Connell (7-6 (5), 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2)) ahead of his victory.

In the previous rounds of The Championships, Tsitsipas, ranked No 5, defeated Austrian Dominic Thiem (3-6, 7-6 (1), 6-2, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (8)), Andy Murray (7-6 (3), 6-7 (2), 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4) and Serb Laslo Djere (6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-4).

London (Grand Slam), other last 16 results (All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, grass, GBP 16.077.000, most recent results first):

• Carlos Alcaraz vs. Matteo Berrettini
• Grigor Dimitrov vs. Holger Rune
• Novak Djokovic (2) beat Hubert Hurkacz (17): 7-6 (6), 7-6 (6), 5-7, 6-4
• Daniil Medvedev beat Jiri Lehecka: 6-4, 6-2 ret.
• Jannik Sinner (8) beat Daniel Elahi Galan: 7-6 (4), 6-4, 6-3
• Roman Safiullin beat Denis Shapovalov (26): 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, 6-3
• Andrey Rublev (7) beat Alexander Bublik (23): 7-5, 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-7 (5), 6-4

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