Bill Simons and Vinay Venkatesh
WIMBLEDON
Chris Eubanks wears his hat backwards. But, boy, is his career going forward.
He played Arthur Ashe in a movie, but now he’s front and center in one of the best American dramas in memory.
He did commentary for Tennis Channel, but everyone is commenting on him. And for good reason.
The 27-year-old, who won the Mallorca Championships, has used his massive serve and groundie blasts and the good advice of Kim Clijsters to gain his first-ever top five win and reach a Slam quarterfinal.
Yes, he was down a set and then two sets to one to the considerable Stefanos Tsitsipas.
But Eubanks knows a thing or two about rising from adversity. A year ago his ranking was 163, now he’ll be in the 40s or better. And he’ll have a chance to do what Arthur Ashe did: win Wimbledon.
Plus, he knows how to effortlessly light up a tennis arena. This game is no soul-deadening slog for the 27-year-old son of a Baptist preacher.
He smiles, he dances, he’s loose – and he encourages the throng. Amazingly, against the Brit Cam Norrie, he won over the partisan English crowd. That’s no mean feat. Some wanted to call him an honorary Brit.
We asked Martin Blackman, the USTA’s General Manager of Player Development, what the key has been to Eubanks’s breakthrough. He replied, “Chris’s perseverance. For years his ranking wasn’t great, but he always scored some big wins, and he invested in his game, his coach and his fitness.”
Eubanks joked that he’s had a “strenuous” relationship with grass. He called his win against Tsitsipas was amazing and surreal. Chris noted that he played well when he needed to and explained why he prevailed at crunch time: “I’m a server. I hit serving targets for these moments.”
In the past, Eubanks knew there were times that he could light it up, but he wasn’t consistent.
His Florida pals Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka had both encouraged him to be confident and to know that he belongs. “Hey,” they said, “you can play at this level. You’ve just got to believe.”
Eubanks confided that his magical run has been “a bit of a blur.” Then again, his surge, which has been at once powerful, magical and surprising, has been a delight and a much welcomed blur for American tennis. Who would have guessed that Eubanks, who’d never won a Wimbledon match, would have been the last American man standing in London?
Chris will have a decent chance against No. 3 seed Daniil Medvedev, his next opponent.
Eubanks’s win wasn’t the only great triumph by an African American on Court 2 today. Madison Keys roared back from being down a set and 4-1 in the second to beat the 16-year-old sensation Mirra Andreeva. It was the second straight time the Russian phenom has fallen to an American in a Slam. Coco beat her in Paris.
It will be Madison’s first Wimbledon quarterfinal since 2015. But she’ll have a tall task. She’ll face the No.2 seed, Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka.
ALL THE NEWS THAT’S NOT FIT TO PRINT: First, Tennis Magazine announced they’d be shutting down. Then the widely respected writer Christopher Clarey left the New York Times to work on a bio of Rafa Nadal.
Then today, shockwaves went throughout the Wimbledon pressroom as word got out that the New York Times will be shutting down its entire sports division. Here in the back hallways of the Wimbledon press center, one saw Times writers huddling in somber conversations, and insiders recalled the long history of memorable tennis correspondents at the Times: Allison Danzig, Neil Amdur, Robin Finn, Clarey, Dave Waldstein and Matt Futterman.
MY CONVERSATION WITH ARTHUR ASHE: Chris Eubanks played Arthur Ashe in Rex Miller’s documentary on the all-time great. So we asked him what that was like and what he would say to Ashe, if somehow he had the opportunity to sit down now and talk to the singular champion who won here in 1975. Eubanks replied, “I’d want to pick his brain on what he thinks of my game. That would probably be the coolest thing – to be able to say, ‘Hey, maybe you’ve seen me play – what do you think? Where are some areas I can improve? I know that you’ve got a pretty big serve, a good forehand, a nasty backhand slice. I’m trying to do a little bit of that. You like it? You don’t?’ Just to kind of get his honest opinion.
“Being able to portray him in that documentary was really, really cool…Also having to do the research, having to go back and watch old films to try to get his technique down and watching tons of interviews of him to try to learn his demeanor, his perspective on things, his philosophy, how important education was.
“So many different things challenged me. But it was also super, super rewarding when I got to see the final project. It was something that I take great pride in.”
WAR ECHOES ON COURT ONE: In little and large ways, war has unintended consequences. After Victoria Azarenka lost to Ukrainian Elina Svitolina in one of the most thrilling matches of the year, the appealing Belarusian was shockingly booed for not shaking Svitolina’s hand. The boo birds didn’t understand that Ukrainians don’t shake hands with Russians and Belarusians. They thought Vika was a bad sport.
Later Svitolina suggested that the organizers should let the fans know that Ukrainians don’t shake the hands of athletes who are from the two nations that are attacking their country.
For her part, Svitlona’s life has been transformed. Not only was her homeland invaded. In October she gave birth to her daughter Skai, and late this season her game, more aggressive than ever, has soared. She reached the quarterfinals at the French Open.
Elina said that if she plays against Russians or Belarusians, “I feel more pressure to win…[and] in my own way, to bring this small victory to Ukraine.”
Elina is now through to the Wimbledon quarters, where she’ll play Iga Swiatek.
IT WAS THE BEST OF SHOTS, IT WAS THE WORST OF SHOTS: After a long rally at crunch time, Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik unleashed a ferocious backhand down the line. He roared, figuring he’d won the point. But the athletic Russian Andrey Rublev sprinted to his right, dove and unleashed a magical forehand to the open court to gain a match point in his fourth-round match. Bublik stood frozen in disbelief. Rublev said his miracle stroke was a lucky shot that he will never hit again. John McEnroe added, “It’s one of the great shots we have seen in years.”
In stark contrast, at 8-8 in the fifth-set tiebreak against Holger Rune, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina suffered one of the biggest brain cramps in memory. He hit a particularly lame underarm serve, which the Dane punished mercilessly. Fokina said he shit on himself.
ONE SCARY RUSSIAN: When talking about his next opponent, Novak Djokovic said Andrey Rublev, “with his grunt, kind of scares his opponents.” But we think that Novak, with all his Slams, his seven Wimbledons and the fact that he hasn’t lost for over a decade on Centre Court is far scarier.
QUOTEBOOK: “I don’t recall being so helpless on the return game than today. It was a matter of good luck and choosing a side.” – Novak Djokovic on trying to deal with Hurkacz’s serve.
GO FIGURE: Some have said that like athletes in team sports, tennis players should wear numbers. Novak Djokovic, who has won 23 Grand Slams, is wearing “23” on his shoes.
