According to the results of Tuesday, July 11, the last representative of Russia remained in the Wimbledon adult singles draws. Daniil Medvedev, 27, reached the quarterfinals of the Grand Slam tournament on grass for the first time in his career and for reaching the top four he will fight with his partner, the American Christopher Eubanks, who has shown incredible progress this season. and it is one of the main advances of recent times.
Christopher was born on May 5, 1996 in Atlanta and, like most Americans, began his professional career through college sports. For three years, Eubanks played for the college of the University of Georgia in his native Atlanta. He was twice named Player of the Year by the Atlantic Coast Conference, a collegiate sports conference located in the eastern United States. Christopher then made the decision to forgo his senior year at his country’s university to qualify to turn professional.
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In July 2015, at the age of 19, Eubanks made his professional tour debut, earning a wild card to a tournament in his native Atlanta. In the first round match, Christopher landed on the experienced Czech Radek Stepanek, who played in that tournament according to the protected qualification rule. Radek, who was already finishing the game, did not leave a single chance for the young American, giving only four games in two sets: 6: 2, 6: 2.
A year later, the performance in Atlanta turned out to be more successful for Christopher in terms of the quality of the game shown, but the same in terms of the final result. All in the same first round in two tiebreakers, he lost to his compatriot Reilly Opelka-6:7, 6:7. A year later, on his third attempt, Christopher finally broke the first round barrier at his home tournament, defeating Taylor Fritz-7:6, 6:4.
That same season, Eubanks made his Grand Slam debut. The organizers of the US Open gave their tennis player a wild card for the local TBSH, which Christopher could not use, having lost overwhelmingly to the Israeli Dudi Sela – 2: 6, 4: 6, 2: 6. Time passed, an Atlanta native matured gradually, but for a long time there was no noticeable progress.
In 2019, Christopher played for the first time in the TBS main draw outside of the United States. He came through qualifying in Melbourne, but then, in the first round, was only able to take a set back from Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili. A year later, the situation was repeated, and in September 2020, Eubanks played in the main draw at the US Open, however, only in doubles. Other Americans were given a wild card home base TBSH as they were tired of expecting a breakthrough from Christopher even in his native America.
Christopher Eubanks
Photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
In 2021, the situation has not radically changed. At the time, the American, already 25 years old, managed to qualify for the US Open to catch a set from Francis Tiafoe in the first round. This is not to say that Christopher did not achieve any success at all. But all of them were either on the “Challenger” or on the “futures” in general. At the ATP level, things continued to go wrong for Eubanks. At the end of 2021, he was in the second hundred of the world ranking (160), with five career wins in ATP tournaments. Not titles. He only wins in individual matches. And this is at the age of 25.
In 2022, Eubanks added to this result four more games won on the professional circuit throughout the year. Among them was the first victory in the Grand Slam tournament. At the home US Open, he defeated Spaniard Pedro Martínez-Portero, then lost in three sets to 11th seed Yannick Sinner of Italy. The American’s position in the ranking at the end of the year improved, but not significantly: 123rd place as of December 26, 2022.
To Christopher’s credit, it should be noted that such failures did not break the athlete. He continued to work hard on himself and believed that his time would come. The long-awaited breakthrough was waiting for one of the tallest athletes (the height of an American is 201 cm) at the Miami Masters. In March 2023, Eubanks was once again out-qualified, but he didn’t stop there. He scored four wins in a row and reached the quarterfinals, where Medvedev awaited him. The Russian won a difficult victory – 6: 3, 7: 5, and then commented on the opponent’s performance.
“I know him, I played Challengers. I really only have one title, although I have played 30 or 40 tournaments. Yes, I have more ATP titles. The level is difficult. Everyone knows how to play: the difference lies in the consistency.
If Chris can play the way he did in this tournament, he’ll move higher and higher. You never know if that means he’s going to be in the top 10, top 50. Everyone in the top 300 can have a great week. This is a question of stability,” Medvedev said in an on-court interview.
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Perhaps only four months ago, the name of this two-meter American really reverberated for the first time on tour. The same stability that Medvedev spoke of did not come to Eubanks immediately. But here it is already important to note that in the following months he had disastrous bad luck with everything. In the second round of Geneva he met Alexander Zverev, in the first round of Roland Garros he met Holger Rune, and in the first round of Halle he met Hubert Hurkach. The same Pole, who later at Wimbledon in four sets only gave his shot to Novak Djokovic once.
Christopher couldn’t beat any of these opponents, but he made up for it in Mallorca. In the last preparatory tournament before Wimbledon, the 27-year-old American won five matches in a row and won his first title at the ATP level. In the final duel in two sets, Christopher defeated Frenchman Adrian Mannarino.
“It means the world to me. It just means the world to me! All the hard work I’ve put in, all the ups and downs in my career, it’s all led me to this point. This is evidence of hard work. Now I want to work hard harder to feel it over and over again.
I have never played at the Wimbledon base before, this will be my debut. And I will go to Wimbledon with my first ATP title. If someone had told me last Thursday that this would happen, I would not have believed it. But here I am standing here and looking forward to playing at Wimbledon on Tuesday, ”said the incredibly happy athlete after the victory, to which he was his whole life.
Christopher Eubanks
Photo: From the personal archive of Christopher Eubanks
Inspired by the first major title of his career, Christopher arrived in England’s capital and kept creating. Having started her Wimbledon debut as racket number 75 in the world, Eubanks continued her winning streak, winning four more matches. The most qualified victories came to him first in the second round (Cameron Norrie was defeated), and then in the fourth – the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas was outplayed with a score of 1:2 in the games.
“A very tough opponent. The coach and I say that it shows total tennis. Not afraid of anything, just keep going. He hits very fast, at the first opportunity he goes to the net. He hits hard.
I’ve known him for a long time, and this year he was able to find something he hadn’t had before. This is stability in everything. After the first title you grow wings, you can watch it from there. Now it looks like it will be a favorite for many years. But you can never say for sure. In the meantime, he plays very well”, even after his victory over the Hungarian Marton Fucovich in the third round of the tournament, Medvedev was full of praise for Eubanks, who at that time had not even beaten Tsitsipas.
Christopher Eubanks
Photo: From the personal archive of Christopher Eubanks
The subsequent win over fifth-seeded Wimbledon became the highest rated of Christopher’s career. The American’s current winning streak now totals nine games. And how not to remember the statistics that we mentioned above. From 2015 to the end of 2022, he won just nine matches at the ATP level. The same as in the last three weeks.
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Today, July 12, Eubanks, who has gathered tremendous courage, will fight Medvedev for the second time this season. In a full-time duel, two 27-year-old tennis players will compete for a place in the Wimbledon semifinals. This game will be the second start on court number 1 and will begin at approximately 17:00 Moscow time after the match between the American Madison Keys and the Belarusian Arina Sobolenko (15:00).
“It’s probably my fifth or sixth time at Wimbledon and I haven’t been very successful. But I never lost on court number one. It’s a shame that in the quarterfinals I’ll probably have to play on center court,” Medvedev said after reaching the quarterfinals of the English Slam.
Well, the organizers of the Grand Slam grass tournament listened to the wishes of the Russian athlete and put him on his favorite court, where Daniil will now play with Eubanks.
