Chris Eubanks’ dream run at Wimbledon continued with an upset of No. 5 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas 3-6, 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals in his main draw debut at the event.
Eubanks, who began the year ranked No. 123 in the world, gets No. 3 Daniil Medvedev on Wednesday for a spot in the semifinals.
“I feel like I’m living a dream right now,” he said on court. “This is absolutely insane.”
On Monday, what would have been Arthur Ashe’s 80th birthday, Eubanks became the first Black American man to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals since MaliVai Washington’s run to the 1996 final.
He’s also the first American man to reach the quarterfinals in his Wimbledon main draw debut since Paul Annacone in 1984.
Eubanks, 27, was 2-8 in his career in Grand Slam singles matches coming into Wimbledon. He also tried and failed to make it through Wimbledon qualifying the last four editions.
After questioning his ability to contend for titles, Eubanks thought about pursuing television commentary instead, and he’s worked on-air for Tennis Channel.
This year, he was playing lower-level Challenger events, but he also made the Miami Open quarterfinals from qualifying in March (where he lost to Medvedev) to break into the top 100.
Until about a week ago, even Eubanks did not really believe he was capable of this sort of thing.
He had a win-loss record of merely 6-10 before winning a grass-court event in Mallora, Spain, the week before Wimbledon to reach No. 43 in the world.
“I would show up to tour events saying, ‘Oh, can I get through a couple rounds of here?’” he said during an interview the day before play began at the All England Club. “Now I genuinely can say, probably for the first time, I’m showing up to tournaments with higher expectations and really wanting to do well and put my best foot forward. I’m no longer feeling OK just being there. I know that I belong.”
A month ago, he called grass “the stupidest surface” in a text he sent to International Tennis Hall of Fame member Kim Clijsters — after exiting in the second round at a low-level ATP Challenger Tour event.
“Those words will never come out of my mouth for the rest of my career. The grass and I, we’ve had a very strenuous, I would say, relationship over the years,” Eubanks said after accumulating 53 winners, 16 more than Tsitsipas. “But right now, I think it’s my best friend.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Eubanks the entertainer 🇺🇸@chris_eubanks96 takes down No.5 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in five sets to reach the QF on #Wimbledon debut pic.twitter.com/1U9cHr67v1
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 10, 2023
