LONDON | Within three weeks, with his first ATP title and an incredible quarter-final at Wimbledon, Christopher Eubanks fell in love with the grass. And the English crowd also showed their love for him on Wednesday, recognizing his performance with a standing ovation despite his loss to Russia’s Daniil Medvedev.
In that hard-fought game, the unexpected American led two sets to one before losing to third-seeded team 6-4 1-6 4-6 7-6(4) 6-1.
Despite the turnaround, despite the tough score in the final set, Eubanks sat in the All England Club’s famed ‘media theater’ with a smile ready to look back on a fortnight that undoubtedly changed his career forever.
In fact, two years ago the 1.90 meter tall giant didn’t know if he would continue with tennis. At 25, he’s stagnant outside the top 200 in Challenger tournaments, far from Wimbledon’s glory, She‘He was given one more season before making up his mind.
A “fun” game
But he persevered. Thankfully, because with some good performances this year but most notably that incredible breakthrough in London, he’ll be flirting with the ATP top 30 on Monday.
With the same candidness that has driven him since he became the darling of England fans, Eubanks opened his press conference on Wednesday with a speech light years away from the speech the loser usually gave.
Photo: AFP
“It was really fun to be a part of this game,” hummed the powerful Atlanta batsman, who finished his tournament with 321 winning games, four more than the mark set by legendary compatriot Andre Agassi in 1992 (Wimbledon started compiling this data in 1977).
“I think the fans get what they pay for in terms of entertainment and quality tennis,” he added. I was just dominated [à la fin]. Daniil is one of the best players in the world and there’s a reason he’s one of the hardest players to beat.”
Photo: AFP
The icing on the sundae
The American is far from dreaming of this status as the world’s best, even though he has climbed 92 places in the rankings since the start of the season.
“I could say to myself, okay, now I want to be in the top 20. But I’ve set goals with my ranking in the past and it hasn’t worked,” he philosophized. I kind of threw that out the window.
“I want to take advantage of what’s happening. No matter where my career takes me, I want to keep having the same fun […] I think considering the five years I’ve spent on it […] Between finishing 220th and 150th to play all these Challenger tournaments, what happened to me is the icing on the ice.
► Medvedev has to meet world number one Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals on Friday. The 20-year-old Spaniard defeated his young compatriot Holger Rune (6) from Denmark 7-6 (3), 6-4, 6-4 on Wednesday and thus secured his place in the semifinals at Wimbledon for the first time in his career.