Chris Eubanks Is the Best Story in Tennis Right Now

Photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Going into this year’s Wimbledon, there were high hopes for a passel of American men’s players, foremost among them Frances Tiafoe, Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, and Sebastian Korda. All came into the tournament ranked inside the top 25 in the world — Fritz and Tiafoe are in the top ten — and all had posted impressive results this year. In the end, none of those guys made it past the third round of the tournament. Instead, the last American man standing is a very unlikely one.

On Monday, 27-year-old journeyman Chris Eubanks continued his magical run through the draw, taking out fifth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas in a massive upset that landed the American in the quarterfinals, where he’ll face world No. 3 Daniil Medvedev.

Eubanks, a six-foot-seven beanpole who played an old-school, net-heavy game to win on Monday, was barely known even to tennis cognoscenti until recently. The former NCAA star from Georgia Tech, who is also a commentator on the Tennis Channel, had never qualified for the main draw at Wimbledon before this year. He had never made it past the second round of any major until now. Not long ago, he had confessed a hatred for playing on grass.

After years toiling mostly on the second-tier Challenger Tour, Eubanks seemed to suddenly find his form over the past year, reaching the second round at the 2022 U.S. Open, this year’s Australian Open, and making a quarterfinal at the prestigious Miami Open. In June, he won his first ATP tournament — on grass, no less.

All that got him to No. 43 in the world, and even if he loses to Medvedev, he’ll leap up to No. 31 next week. It’s exceedingly rare for a tennis player to establish himself at 27, and whether Eubanks can sustain this kind of momentum for long is a major question. But for now, he’s certainly enjoying the moment.